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Rank these Asian Test captains in order
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Never saw Wadekar or Pautadi so leaving them out.
Misbah > Ranatunga > Ganguly > Dhoni
Not saying that Dhoni is bad by stretch but I give the others more credit for transforming the identities of their teams, in the same way that Nasser Hussain was a better captain than Vaughan, Strauss, Cook etc. even if his successors won more overall.
Misbah took over a team without a home, without a series win in four years and with his best players in jail or indefinitely banned due to fighting with the PCB.
Ganguly and Ranatunga both instilled a real fighting spirit into their sides. Where before there was this minnow mentality when facing teams like Australia, Ganguly and Ranatunga did their best to really get under the skin of the opposition and I appreciate a quality troll.
Ranatunga over Ganguly just because Sri Lanka was historically a confirmed minnow team, while India still had a test pedigree to build on and World Cup wins in their past.
Dhoni isn't a bad captain, he won everything in ODI cricket but I just rate the other captains higher.
Misbah > Ranatunga > Ganguly > Dhoni
Not saying that Dhoni is bad by stretch but I give the others more credit for transforming the identities of their teams, in the same way that Nasser Hussain was a better captain than Vaughan, Strauss, Cook etc. even if his successors won more overall.
Misbah took over a team without a home, without a series win in four years and with his best players in jail or indefinitely banned due to fighting with the PCB.
Ganguly and Ranatunga both instilled a real fighting spirit into their sides. Where before there was this minnow mentality when facing teams like Australia, Ganguly and Ranatunga did their best to really get under the skin of the opposition and I appreciate a quality troll.
Ranatunga over Ganguly just because Sri Lanka was historically a confirmed minnow team, while India still had a test pedigree to build on and World Cup wins in their past.
Dhoni isn't a bad captain, he won everything in ODI cricket but I just rate the other captains higher.
Ab Fan
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Tests:
Ganguly> Misbah> Ranatunga> Dhoni
Different format and the order will be different.
Ganguly> Misbah> Ranatunga> Dhoni
Different format and the order will be different.
misbah above ganguly,,what are u saying big mac..how one can be so much biased despite knowing the facts....
2 is coming ..
Hasan123
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Ganguly
Ranatunga
Misbah
MSD
Ranatunga
Misbah
MSD
Bilal7
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Ganguly > Misbah > Ranatunga > Dhoni. The first three are pretty close.
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kingusama92
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Pataudi for sure a level ahead of anyone. He brought the same spirit in Indian team like Ganguly with half the squad. Wadekar was a mix bag - his lows probably matches his high; I don't rate him that high as Captain, because he didn't make the team on merit, but he was quite astute as Captain.
Rest are tough to separate - Arjuna was distinctively better ODI Captain, so is MS, while Misbah's Test record is much better than his on field tactics - he isn't the sharpest tool there; but he was a great man manager.
Tiger Pataudi>>>>>>>> Ganguly>Misbah>Arjuna>Wadekar>MS for me. I am a fan of MS the LO Captain, but didn't like his Test leadership (though it raised to No. 1)
Rest are tough to separate - Arjuna was distinctively better ODI Captain, so is MS, while Misbah's Test record is much better than his on field tactics - he isn't the sharpest tool there; but he was a great man manager.
Tiger Pataudi>>>>>>>> Ganguly>Misbah>Arjuna>Wadekar>MS for me. I am a fan of MS the LO Captain, but didn't like his Test leadership (though it raised to No. 1)
Bilal7
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Everyone has placed Dhoni dead last. Yet, this guy was once compared to Imran by some delusional Indian posters. 
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Ganguly
Misbah
Ranatunga
Dhoni
Misbah
Ranatunga
Dhoni
I'd say Ranatunga > Ganguly and Misbah > Dhoni. Can't comment on Pataudi and Wadekar.
From a purely tactical standpoint Ranatunga was miles ahead of the rest. He marshalled his limited resources wonderfully well, and never shied from experimentation. Moreover, his combative nature instilled confidence in his players and he always appeared calm and in control.
Ganguly was a good leader of men and instilled confidence and self-belief in an Indian team that had none. However, i'd rate him below Ranatunga in terms of tactical nous.
Misbah was the polar opposite of Ranatunga and Ganguly in terms of aggression. Neither a great tactician, nor a leader in the traditional sense, he had qualities that were needed by Pakistan at the time he took over - calmness, humility, persistence, and the recognition of the team's and his own limitations and ensuring that he played within them (although it sometimes backfired).
Dhoni's captaincy has been a mixed bag and I feel it has deteriorated over the years as he has curbed his natural aggressive tendencies.
From a purely tactical standpoint Ranatunga was miles ahead of the rest. He marshalled his limited resources wonderfully well, and never shied from experimentation. Moreover, his combative nature instilled confidence in his players and he always appeared calm and in control.
Ganguly was a good leader of men and instilled confidence and self-belief in an Indian team that had none. However, i'd rate him below Ranatunga in terms of tactical nous.
Misbah was the polar opposite of Ranatunga and Ganguly in terms of aggression. Neither a great tactician, nor a leader in the traditional sense, he had qualities that were needed by Pakistan at the time he took over - calmness, humility, persistence, and the recognition of the team's and his own limitations and ensuring that he played within them (although it sometimes backfired).
Dhoni's captaincy has been a mixed bag and I feel it has deteriorated over the years as he has curbed his natural aggressive tendencies.
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Ganguly > Ranatunga > Misbah = Dhoni in the test format
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Everyone has placed Dhoni dead last. Yet, this guy was once compared to Imran by some delusional Indian posters.
Dhoni does deserve credit for bringing it all together but it's quite apparent Ganguly set the foundation for their success.
You rate Misbah quite lowly.
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Justcrazy
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pataudi
Ganguly
Ranatunga
Wadekar
Dhoni
Misbah
Ganguly
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Wadekar
Dhoni
Misbah
Robert
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It's impossible to say what Nasser would have done with Vaughan's side. They was I see it is that Nasser was the A&E surgeon who staunched the bleeding and got the patient on the way to recovery while Vaughan was the physio who got him walking again, and then dancing.
As for the OP I'll have Misbah and Ranatunga. I know Alec Stewart called the latter a disgrace to cricket to his face, but he was effective.
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Everyone has placed Dhoni dead last. Yet, this guy was once compared to Imran by some delusional Indian posters.
Let's not display sour grapes, shall we? Dhoni was mediocre but led Indian team to numero uno in tests. We all saw how we reacted when Misbah did the same an year back.
Bilal7
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"Dhoni was mediocre..." Don't fret, buddy, we're on the same team.
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You missed the point but yea, whatever.
Buffet
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I doubt a gun captain would drop tests against WI and not to forget almost getting whitewashed by an un-ranked Zim team who were not even getting paid. He knows one way to play and that's works when it works. Same situation with Dhoni in the test format. Misbah and Dhoni , both are comfortably behind other two. Both are clueless test captain.
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Did not see Pataudi or Wadekar so I can't give an accurate judgement on them, however, I've heard Pataudi emboldened the Indians in their approach and was tactically very astute. Wadekar has the away tour wins to West Indies and England in 1971 which is quite similar to Imran's 1987 successes, I feel Wadekar maybe under appreciated for his mediocre stats but in no way as below par as Mike Brearly's numbers. Don't think Wadekar had the brain Brearly possessed but definitely had to be quite shrewd to accomplish what he did.
Ranatunga took a minnow and transformed them into world champions. Under him they were a very strong test team in Asian conditions even beat a weak Pakistan team in 1995. However, it was his away series wins in New Zealand and England that showed how far he had brought the team. Best test captain of the lot.
Misbah and Ganguly are on par for me. When Ganguly became captain India had a batting line-up consisting of Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, and Laxman at their peak. The Indian team completely relied on their batting to win or draw games nothing to do with captaincy. He did manage his bowlers well and got a highly credible draw in Australia. His peak saw his team win in Pakistan but he didn't even play the first 2 games of the 3 match series. His captaincy saw a rejuvenation of Indian cricket but a lot of it was down to his batting line up.
Dhoni did not go undefeated at home like Misbah nor did he make India win abroad. His odi loi's captaincy overshadowed his test captaincy and led to him being quite overrated in tests. He was also hampered by a weak bowling attack which was required to win abroad but the weak bowling attack got compensated for with the power-packed batting in loi's.
Test cricket is all about attitude towards the game - how you attack, what risk you are ready to take for a win & how much you can use your resources to maximize your chance to win.
These are factors that actually not a concern in LOs because there is a confirmed winner - you play defensively, you'll lose by default, therefore no extra point for being aggressive. In Test cricket, one can play safe & take defeat out of equation between, but that will end in several draws, even for a better team. For an example, I can take two Indian Captains - Gavaskar & Kapil. Both extremely defensive Captain & they actually cost their team with their defensive approach. Between 1977 to 1986 Gavaskar led a strong Indian team at home & the standard operating procedure was 1-0 lead before tourists settle in IND & rest are IND dominated draws. Those days 5/6 Tests were frequent & Gavaskar's record is amazing - 1-0 against Packer reject WI (5 draws after 1st Test), 2-0 against Packer reject AUS (6 Test), 2-0 against PAK (6), 1-0 ENG (6 Test), 0-0 SRL (1) - these are series where probably a more aggresive Captain would have ended with 4-1 or even 5-1 result, but obviously that won't have given Gavaskar that career stats. Kapil, individually a fantastic attacking player, but he allowed an inexperienced PAK side get away with draws for 4 Tests & then steal the series on the decider.
Direct win-loss to determine the quality of a Captain is foolish - 90% of a Captain's W/L ratio is a function of the team he is leading. Azhar took PAK to 9th, but even Imran won't have taken this lot to 1 (simply as a player, he is good enough to pull it even in top 4, but that's separate discussion). In that regard, Steve Waugh is one of the dumbest Captain that I have seen - with his team, his only hurdle was to bet IND in IND, he failed to do that from 1-0 lead & that too after enforcing follow on & winning toss in bots Test he lost. There are many club Captains, who without matching SW as player will achieve similar W/L record with that team. Similarly, Lloyd was a fantastic Man manager, but not the best tactician. Captains like Misbah is very much similar to Lloyd or Waugh - they are extremely good house keeper - obviously different class as a player, but Misbah had full command of his team & he actually punched above his team's caliber in his favorable condition.
Coming to Pataudi - he didn't have a team that was remotely close to what his contemporary Captains had - Ian Chappel, Ali Bacher, Illingworth, Lloyd, Sobers or even Intekhab; but he fought with right spirit & what ever he had in his disposal. Played to compete till last - win/loss was just a function of his 10 players & Ian or Lloyd's 10. Under him, IND came to 2-2 from 0-2 against WI (& Roberts) in 1974 - any other Captain, it probably would have ended 4-0 by then. BUT, compared to the Gavaskar era, that 5 Test series ended 3-2 for WI - key is here the direct result in all 5 Tests.
In this regard, I do believe MS also was extremely defensive - the team he had under him demanded more aggressive approach.
I find remarkable similarity in them.
Both were academically qualified, but very limited batsman. I don't think neither of them were good enough to make the starting XI on batting merit, because they were very good thinker & strategist with limited capability. Wadekar & Brearly has at least 150% better stats in FC cricket than their Test career (need to check, probably even higher), which indicates their limited skill, but better understanding of the game, which helped them dominating lower quality opponents as a player.
In terms of Captaincy, both were master of using bowling resources in favorable condition. In this regard, for AW spin & MB seem bowling. Wadekar was a master of squeezing opponents with his spin attack & intelligent field placings - but, he was out of depth in 1974 UK tour. Same was for Brearly, he was a master to dominate weaker opponents in seem friendly condition. He beat a Packer reject AUS team 5-1, in what was the lowest scoring Ashes after 1900s. Similarly, his 1981 Ashes win was also against an AUS team led by Kim Hughes, because Greg decided to take a break. He beat Packer reject PAK at home, but only was saved by the short duration of Tests in PAK in return series, led by Wasim Bari. ENG lost comprehensively to Chappel's AUS 3-0, just after AUS was hammered 3-0 in AUS by Lloyd's WI. Brearley's biggest failure to me is his incapability to take 10 Indian wickets, defending 440, in 151 overs.
Tactically, Brearly was brilliant in County level, so was Wadekar for Mumbai - one reason being Brearly averaging 40+ in County & Wadekar 50+ for Mumbai, but main reason being their understanding the bowlers & condition. I am sure, had they matched their intelligence with their cricket skills, both would have ended ATG cricketers for respective countries.
Of the 2, I rate Wadekar slightly higher, because he did won a Series in ENG & one in WI, when his sides were clear underdog - outside ENG, only time Brearly had anything to show was the Silver Jubilee Test at Bombay - a match, where one of his player took 13/106 & then scored 114 to pull his side from 5/57 in a low scoring match, that ended in less than 3 days (250 overs in total match duration).
The_Odd_One
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Ganguly then Misbah then Ranatunga and finally Dhoni
However, Misbah gets some bonus points for really standing up as a batsman during his captaincy. Ganguly on the other hand forgot how to bat when he became test captain.
However, Misbah gets some bonus points for really standing up as a batsman during his captaincy. Ganguly on the other hand forgot how to bat when he became test captain.
Thanks for a well informed opinion.
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Misbah ul Haq > Sourav Ganguly > Arjuna Ranatunga > MS Dhoni
1) Ranatunga. Had a very mediocre team that he built into world beaters. Amazing captain
2) Misbah. Took team at the lowest level in terms of skill-set and confidence ( for God sake we had haffez and umar akmal and Gull in the team along with shahzad and rahat. Huh) and took us to no1. Tht was class
3) Ganguly , gave the killer instinct to indian team and showed life without tendulkar. Before him indians just lost all hooe once tendulkar was gone
4) Dhoni , talent n skill wise , he had the steongest team of all 4 and still did anything noticeable outside india... big fan as a cricketer of dhoni but he was luky rather than gud
2) Misbah. Took team at the lowest level in terms of skill-set and confidence ( for God sake we had haffez and umar akmal and Gull in the team along with shahzad and rahat. Huh) and took us to no1. Tht was class
3) Ganguly , gave the killer instinct to indian team and showed life without tendulkar. Before him indians just lost all hooe once tendulkar was gone
4) Dhoni , talent n skill wise , he had the steongest team of all 4 and still did anything noticeable outside india... big fan as a cricketer of dhoni but he was luky rather than gud
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