I learnt a lot from Sachin, says Dhoni

Terming Sachin Tendulkar’s contribution to cricket as immense, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni Monday said he had learnt a lot from the batting maestro.

“I learnt a lot from him whenever I got a chance to bat in the ODI (One-Day International) format. I think his contribution is immense and it will be difficult to replace him,” Dhoni said a day after Sachin announced his retirement from ODIs in Mumbai Sunday.

Admitting that the team would definitely miss the master blaster, Dhoni said it would be difficult to replace Sachin, who has been an inspiration for thousands of boys to take to the game and made youngsters learn a lot when they joined the team.

“We will also be very disappointed not to see Sachin score his 50th century and 100th half-century in the ODIs, as he had retired with a world record of 49 hundreds and 96 fifties,” Dhoni said ahead of the first India-Pakistan T20 tie Tuesday at the Chinnaswamy stadium here.

Among the many things Dhoni and other players learnt from Sachin were how to prepare for each and every ODI, how to accept defeats and how to be humble in life.

“All these things helped me personally. It is good that Sachin is still playing in one of the formats (Tests) as there is plenty for youngsters to learn from him,” Dhoni recalled.

Asked if he had thought of persuading Sachin to continue in the ODIs, Dhoni said he did not as retiring from the shorter version of the game was the little master’s personal decision.

“No. It was his personal decision and we respect it,” Dhoni added.