It was a different era then, so it’s impossible to compare. Did you even watch cricket back then? Are you old enough?
Imran was a great player and leader maybe one of the best ever. He took a team and turned the players into superstars, he wasn’t given them.
Also with the bat Imran averaged over 50 and less than 20 with the ball in his final 10 years as a player which shows his class.
Also Mamoon on a side note (not relating to this post), I read nearly every comment of yours is anti Pakistan. Are you Indian?
Unfortunately, I am a Pakistani.
Also unfortunately, I am not old enough to remember the Imran era because I started watching cricket in the late 90’s.
That is why I do value the opinion of older people, because there are some things that you only learn with experience.
However, there is enough information available for people to make up their own minds and not just rely on the anecdotes of others, since they are often loaded with bias.
I also feel that people use this line of argument very selectively.
I firmly believe that Kohli is a greater player and captain than Imran. Firstly, Imran’s average of 50 with the bat in the last 10 years of his career is inflated and not an accurate measure of his batting capability.
Would you say that Imran in the last 10 years of his Test career was as good a batsman as Miandad, Inzamam, Yousuf and Younis who all averaged 50? Certainly not.
The rate at which Kohli wins Test matches is absolutely incredible. You can downplay him because of different eras, but remember - if Test matches are more result oriented today,
it not only means that Tests were harder to win in Imran’s era, but also harder to lose.
But what makes Kohli such a great Test captain is that not only does he wins matches at an incomparable rate to Imran, his rate of losing matches is almost identical to that of Imran.
Misbah also won more than Imran, but he also lost more, and it is clear that he was nowhere near the captain Imran was.
Furthermore, Imran benefited from playing in the pre-social media and Internet era. In those times, cricketers were not micro-analyzed.
Imran got away with losing a Test to Sri Lanka in 1986 (who only won 2 Tests in that decade), but if Kohli were to lose a Test to Bangladesh today, he would be grilled for the rest of his career.
People who claim that Imran was the better captain because he played in a different era, well my question is - what does Kohli have to do in today’s era to be considered a better captain?
He is winning matches at a ridiculous rate and is almost certain to overtake G. Smith as the most prolific Test captain in history by number of wins. In addition, his performance as a batsman during his captaincy has been extraordinary.
What makes Kohli so special is that he still has 5-6 years left in him. Even if he retires today, he will go down as one of the top 10 players in history. However, by the time he is 36-37 and ready to call it a day, he will surely be ranked among the top 3 batsmen and captains of all time.
In Limited Overs, Imran has a better legacy as captain because of the World Cup. Unless Kohli wins the 2023 World Cup which will most probably be his last as captain, he will remain an inferior ODI captain.
However, there is often a small margin between winning or losing a World Cup. Every champion needs some luck. Kohli’s India haven’t had that luck so far, but Imran’s Pakistan did in 1992.
Imran is one of the greatest players and captain in history. Certainly the best in Pakistan’s history.
However, Kohli has done enough in his career so far to be considered better both as a player and as a Test captain, and I firmly believe that his team would beat Imran’s team in both Tests and ODIs.
As far as turning players into superstars is concerned, we need to understand that no captain has a magic wand.
If a player doesn’t have the ability to be a superstar a captain cannot do anything.
Like all great captains including Kohli, Imran was lucky to have amazing talents like Wasim, Waqar, Inzamam etc. whom he polished. However, you cannot polish **** or players who do not have elite potential.
Imran couldn’t convert players like Ijaz Ahmed into Inzamam, Saleem Jaffer into Wasim and Aqib Javed into Waqar. It is not that he didn’t work hard with them or didn’t give him the same advice he gave to Wasim and Waqar. It is just that they didn’t have the talent to be as good.
Similarly, Kohli couldn’t have turned Dinda into Bumrah either.
Imran like other previous of his generation benefit greatly from the fact that their records and achievements are not scrutinized and belittled like modern players, and this is the social media and Internet effect. Modern players like Kohli don’t have that luxury.
For example, Imran’s innings in the 1992 semifinal against New Zealand was as bad as Misbah’s Mohali innings. However, Miandad and especially Inzamam played blinders to save the day.
For Misbah, had Afridi, Umar or Razzaq played similar knocks, he would not be criticized for it for the rest of his career.
Furthermore, during Imran’s innings in the semifinal, there would be a meltdown on PP and Twitter, people would be calling him tuk tuk and selfish and what not.
But since it happened in 1992 when there was no PP and Twitter, and Pakistan ended up winning the World Cup, no one considers that innings as a potentially match-losing one, but that is what it was before Inzamam and Miandad rescued Pakistan.
I am not anti-Pakistan. It’s just that I think we have been rubbish for far too long, I hate our cricket culture, I hate the way we play the game, I hate the way our ex-players, analysts and fans observe the game, I hate the way we celebrate inconsistency and romanticize it as unpredictability and cornered tigers mentality.
If I were a neutral, Pakistan would have been the last team that I would have supported. Unfortunately, I have deep love for the game and I was born in Pakistan and this is where I grew up, so I have no choice but to support the team even if I don’t want to.
The problem is that people don’t care to listen to my point of view and call it hatred. This is not hatred from my perspective. Unfortunately, some people only quote me so that they can get into needless arguments, and I try to resist the provocation but not always successfully.
If people present their opinions respectfully and in a civil manner like you, and don’t aim to provoke me, I am more than willing to give my perspective.
Whether people agree or not is not the point and it is not my intention to make everyone agree with me. I just give my perspective but people have a problem with it.
Have you seen Team India ODI record in last 3 years.
