MS Dhoni world's best all-rounder in last few years: Lance Klusener

New Delhi: Former South African all-rounder Lance Klusener has hailed Indian ODI skipper MS Dhoni as world's best all-rounder in the last few years.

In a chat with Times Of India, when asked about the dearth of all-rounders in world cricket at the moment, Klusener said, "They (all-rounders) are there but they haven't quite proved themselves over the years. We have been lucky that we have had the likes of Jacques Kallis and Shaun Pollock. I also feel wicketkeeper-batsman are genuine all-rounders in their own right. The likes of MS Dhoni, Adam Gilchrist are invaluable. The best all-rounder in world cricket in the last few years for me has to be MS Dhoni."

Klusener was also full of praise for Indian Test skipper Virat Kohli, who recently led India to a series win on Lankan soil.

"He was refreshing during the Sri Lanka series. He led from the front and that's what you want your captain to do all the time. As a batsman, he is one of the best in the world. I am certain the South African team management is going to have him in mind when planning their attack. India is lucky to have someone like Kohli coming through the ranks and doing so well over the years," Klusener added.

SA are set to commence their visit with the T20 tour game in Delhi on September 29 against the BP XI followed by the three-match T20 International series against hosts India commencing on October 2 at Dharamsala.

The other two India-South Africa T20Is are scheduled to be played on October 5 and 8 at Cuttack and Kolkata respectively.

The Proteas are later slated to play five ODIs against India between October 11 and 25 at Kanpur, Indore, Rajkot, Chennai and Mumbai.

After the conclusion of the limited over part of the tour, the tourists would play a two-day tour game here on October 30 and 31 to get attuned for the Gandhi-Mandela Test rubber against India for the Freedom Trophy.

These four Tests are scheduled to be played at Mohali (Nov 5-9), Bengaluru (Nov 14-18), Nagpur (Nov 25-29) and Delhi (Dec 3-7) before the visitors fly home.

(With Agency inputs)

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