i always maintained he is a core member of the team,, i always suprised me when people doubted his abilities,, coming at no 6 & 7 and having a average of 52 in ODI cricket needs serious dedication and talent.. Truly one of the greatest ODI player ever seen
Cricketers made Indians to love Cricket and of course other games like Hockey gone down.
Gavaskar and Kapil Dev. Later Sachin, Dravid and Saurav.
Among all Dhoni becomes the Hero of Indian Cricket and his success rate is very comparatively with any other captains in the world - may be perhaps one/two from Australia. Dhoni makes other players also to perform better than to their caliber. Very good judge, good in identifying the talents, good in noticing the weakness of opponents. Still good at this age - As this juncture no suitable substitute seems to be found to play at No.6. Saha could play at 6 but not seems to be so good. Karthik could be a better batsman but at which spot is the question. Similarly upcoming Pant or Samson are brought in the batting order has to be changed/rearranged between 1-4/5 while many are available in those spots.
Top 15 run getters have batted at No. 1 to 4 except M.S. Dhoni.
This in itself shows the greatness of man.
The only player in the world apart from (Micheal Bevan) to have average above 50 batting at No.6. Even Micheal Bevan did not bat at No. 6 most of the times.
