New Delhi [India], December 7 (ANI): Former India opener Murali Vijay hailed legendary cricketer MS Dhoni's irreplaceable legacy, calling him a 'natural and very unique' leader whose instinctive decisions, including handing the final over of the 2007 T20 World Cup to Joginder Sharma, helped shape India's cricketing history.

Dhoni, who only plays in the Indian Premier League (IPL), has been retained by Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for the IPL 2026 season. Notably, Vijay played eight IPL seasons for CSK, all under MS Dhoni's captaincy.

Speaking on Taruwar Kohli's YouTube channel, Vijay praised Dhoni's power-hitting, mental strength and unmatched impact on the game.

'Dhoni is natural and very unique. Those personalities you cannot replicate. Anybody cannot come and do what he is doing. The way he has dominated and taken the game, he was a very strong person. The way he launched those sixes, I don't think anyone else got that range as a right hander. He gave that last over to Joginder and we won it. There may not have been logic as Harbhajan had an over as a senior. But it won us the cup as he did something out of the box. We all should be proud that he was born in our country,' Vijay said on Taruwar Kohli's YouTube channel.

Murali Vijay began his international career in 2008, replacing Gautam Gambhir in India's XI for the final Test of the 2008-09 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Nagpur. Over his career, he played 87 matches for India across all formats, including 61 Tests, 17 ODIs, and 9 T20Is. He retired from all formats of international cricket in 2023.

Vijay's last appearance for India came in 2018 against Australia in Perth, while his final first-class and List-A matches for Tamil Nadu were in late 2019. He played his last professional game in the IPL in September 2020.

Across his 87 international games, Vijay scored 4,490 runs at an average of 34.80, with a strike rate of 48.48, including 12 centuries and 16 fifties. In the IPL, he amassed 2,619 runs in 106 matches at an average of 25.93. (ANI)