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Who is India's greatest captain?

Who is India's greatest captain?

  • Kapil Dev

    Votes: 3 5.7%

  • Mohammad Azharuddin

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Sourav Ganguly

    Votes: 30 56.6%

  • MS Dhoni

    Votes: 13 24.5%

  • Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi

    Votes: 7 13.2%
  • Total voters
    53
Tusker said:
Can any of the Ganguly fans want to Tell us Ganguly's tangible achievements compared to Dhoni ?

Pretty sure nothing more than hot air is going to come out in that post.
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So in your book Ricky Ponting is the most successful captain in the history of the game and John Buchannan the most successful coach ever.

2-3 World Cups. Close to a decade as #1 team in test cricket. And winning both tests and ODI series in every country they played in
 
Slog said:
So in your book Ricky Ponting is the most successful captain in the history of the game and John Buchannan the most successful coach ever.

2-3 World Cups. Close to a decade as #1 team in test cricket. And winning both tests and ODI series in every country they played in
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If he had done that with the kind of resources that MSD has then yes ... Ponting doesnt rate because most of his achievements were a result of having a Team that was full of ATG's. Even a dumass would win with a team like that. His limitations began to show once the greats retired and his own form deserted him. Compare that to MSD who has to work with various Sharma's and Kumar's ... Trundlers Galore !! :)) Yet he some how manages to remain calm and has a Trophy cabinet that most captains would be envious of.
 
Tusker said:
If he had done that with the kind of resources that MSD has then yes ... Ponting doesnt rate because most of his achievements were a result of having a Team that was full of ATG's. Even a dumass would win with a team like that. His limitations began to show once the greats retired and his own form deserted him. Compare that to MSD who has to work with various Sharma's and Kumar's ... Trundlers Galore !! :)) Yet he some how manages to remain calm and has a Trophy cabinet that most captains would be envious of.
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Haven't Dhoni's limitations been exposed once Zaheer Khan was no longer there and the old Fab 4 lost form and became old. EIGHT CONSECUTIVE AWAY LOSSES. Sorry I just can't accept a captain as India'a greatest with an away record as pathetic is that. Ganguly drew 1-1 in Aus whereas Dhoni lost 6 out of 7 tests he captained in OZ.
 
Slog said:
Haven't Dhoni's limitations been exposed once Zaheer Khan was no longer there and the old Fab 4 lost form and became old. EIGHT CONSECUTIVE AWAY LOSSES. Sorry I just can't accept a captain as India'a greatest with an away record as pathetic is that. Ganguly drew 1-1 in Aus whereas Dhoni lost 6 out of 7 tests he captained in OZ.
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That isn’t relevant. Ponting achieved what he did with an ATG team, Dhoni did it with a weaker team. Now if Dhoni gets an even weaker team (with even worse bowlers and batsman) then obviously he will fail. Just because he is a great captain who achieved a lot with a weak team doesn’t mean he can do well with an even weaker team.

Eight consecutive overseas losses is hardly surprising with such weak bowlers. It had little to do with the captaincy, the most tactically equipped captains would have done terrible with this team as well (on difficult overseas tours - nowadays it is extremely difficult to win a test outside your continent).
 
Sachin136 said:
That isn’t relevant. Ponting achieved what he did with an ATG team, Dhoni did it with a weaker team. Now if Dhoni gets an even weaker team (with even worse bowlers and batsman) then obviously he will fail. Just because he is a great captain who achieved a lot with a weak team doesn’t mean he can do well with an even weaker team.

Eight consecutive overseas losses is hardly surprising with such weak bowlers. It had little to do with the captaincy, the most tactically equipped captains would have done terrible with this team as well (on difficult overseas tours - nowadays it is extremely difficult to win a test outside your continent).
Click to expand...

You missed Slog's point.
 
Slog said:
Haven't Dhoni's limitations been exposed once Zaheer Khan was no longer there and the old Fab 4 lost form and became old. EIGHT CONSECUTIVE AWAY LOSSES. Sorry I just can't accept a captain as India'a greatest with an away record as pathetic is that. Ganguly drew 1-1 in Aus whereas Dhoni lost 6 out of 7 tests he captained in OZ.
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:))

True.

Tusker calls all of Dhoni's failures as a result of bad team (even when presented a cricinfo article that goes deep into his game drifting tactics apart from personal views) but uses Dhoni's lack of resources in bowling (while having incredible batting lineup) as a way to call him awesome captain in Tests too.

Game isn't played on stat sheets or surface level logic like ohhh Dhoni has weak team ergo better captain.

Even neutrals (let's even exclude Pakistanis from the list just in case) won't rate Dhoni as a superior captain to Ganguly (in tests) if asked now.

Dhoni and all modern bats being better than Bradman are 2 topics...me and Tusker disagree big time. :)
 
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Sachin136 said:
That isn’t relevant. Ponting achieved what he did with an ATG team, Dhoni did it with a weaker team. Now if Dhoni gets an even weaker team (with even worse bowlers and batsman) then obviously he will fail. Just because he is a great captain who achieved a lot with a weak team doesn’t mean he can do well with an even weaker team.

Eight consecutive overseas losses is hardly surprising with such weak bowlers. It had little to do with the captaincy, the most tactically equipped captains would have done terrible with this team as well (on difficult overseas tours - nowadays it is extremely difficult to win a test outside your continent).
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Dhoni had one of the best teams of the lot at his disposal from 2008-2011.

ATG batting lineup with Zaheer Khan in full flow along with spinners and some pacers chipping in here and there.

We weren't an ATG team but were a top top team during that time (comparison wise).

Captaincy should be judged based on

1. Man management
2. Tactics

All the rest is beyond someone's control.
 
Slog said:
Haven't Dhoni's limitations been exposed once Zaheer Khan was no longer there and the old Fab 4 lost form and became old. EIGHT CONSECUTIVE AWAY LOSSES. Sorry I just can't accept a captain as India'a greatest with an away record as pathetic is that. Ganguly drew 1-1 in Aus whereas Dhoni lost 6 out of 7 tests he captained in OZ.
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Huh ? You are comparing Pontings failures due to Loss of McGrath and Warne to Dhoni losing Zak !!! Thats got to be a joke :))

In any case Ganguly had the best use of not just Zak, Fab4 but most importantly Srinath, Kumble in Prime. Both never played under MSD and AK is one of only bowlers that can be classed as greats. What did Ganguly achieve with all these good players under him ?
 
Don't know about Pataudi (heard he was great but he didn't anything resembling the right team to prove his credentials). So here is my view.

Ganguly > Dravid > Dhoni > Kapil > Azhar

Sorry Dhoni lovers, Dhoni's test captaincy has destroyed his legacy. Several white washes have certainly pushed him down the scale.

Ganguly instilled the right values and courage into a mentally fragile team. Dravid kept the torch burning after Ganguly though he got removed for political reasons. Dhoni inherited a team that had started to believe in itself so his journey was easy to begin with, but his true colors were exposed when the team lost its shine. Dhoni was clueless when India was losing series after series and it seems he had just given up (he didn't even try changing team composition and such simple techniques to turn the tide) - such a captain cannot be the best captain in any sense of the term. Kapil did not have a team good enough, but he could have done better. Azhar was a horrible captain, he was a captain who fixed matches and does not deserve to be mentioned along with other names.
 
IndianWillow said:
Don't know about Pataudi (heard he was great but he didn't anything resembling the right team to prove his credentials). So here is my view.

Ganguly > Dravid > Dhoni > Kapil > Azhar

Sorry Dhoni lovers, Dhoni's test captaincy has destroyed his legacy. Several white washes have certainly pushed him down the scale.

Ganguly instilled the right values and courage into a mentally fragile team. Dravid kept the torch burning after Ganguly though he got removed for political reasons. Dhoni inherited a team that had started to believe in itself so his journey was easy to begin with, but his true colors were exposed when the team lost its shine. Dhoni was clueless when India was losing series after series and it seems he had just given up (he didn't even try changing team composition and such simple techniques to turn the tide) - such a captain cannot be the best captain in any sense of the term. Kapil did not have a team good enough, but he could have done better. Azhar was a horrible captain, he was a captain who fixed matches and does not deserve to be mentioned along with other names.
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Good post.

Though I do not agree with rating Dravid that high. He didn't transform the team, and his only significant achievement was the Test series win against England and WI. I do agree that the Eng win was truly significant, it does pale into insignificance when compared to Dhoni's achievements in LOIs.

Even though I never saw him play, but MAK Pataudi was known to be a great captain.

Interestingly, people are rating Kapil quite low. After all, he had inspired India to our first WC, leading the team from the front.
 
Tusker said:
Huh ? You are comparing Pontings failures due to Loss of McGrath and Warne to Dhoni losing Zak !!! Thats got to be a joke :))

In any case Ganguly had the best use of not just Zak, Fab4 but most importantly Srinath, Kumble in Prime. Both never played under MSD and AK is one of only bowlers that can be classed as greats. What did Ganguly achieve with all these good players under him ?
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Ponting lost: McGrath, Warne, Martyn, Hayden, Gilchrist, Gillespie, Langer - all in short time and replaced by inferior players. So not just a few players.

Anyways the point seems to be lost on you.

You want tangible trophies etc for Ganguly for him to be called the best captain. Yoy say Dhoni has these achievements hence he should be such and fail to take into account the context and the strength of the team at disposal and the strength of opposition. Goibg by your criteria Ponting is the greatest captain of all time because hw won everything and more. (using your logic here.)

In any case you cannot compare Dhoni's era and Ganguly's era. Dhoni did not have to face or deal with an all conquering side which is arguably the greatest cricket side assembled in the history of the game. If Dhoni did he would not have won the trophies or reached the top of test rankings (which was a short lived stay to begin with and imo the 1-1 draw in SA in 2010-11 was the only very impressive result.) The ODI World Cup win was in familiar conditions and India had the best side for those conditions.

Now coming to Ganguly's achievements per your criteria.

1-1 Draw in Australia (Dhoni cannot dream of that and lost 5 out of 6 Tests he captained in Oz.)
Reaching World Cup 2003 Final and only losing to arguably the greatest side in cricket history. Also this WC was in South Africa, conditions India struggle in, rather than India.
Champions Trophy
Built a team rather than being handed a great team.
Captain of the side which won its first ever series in Pakistan
 
MSD

Although I feel he rode the current tide which was in favor of the BCCI because of their substantial financial contributions to the ICC and pretty much had things in their favor throughout. Not to forget that he captained India to a world cup victory in India. But the results prove that he was their best captain.
 
first of all certain points to take note w.r.t captaincy

1. better win-loss record doesn't mean better captain because that depends on the over all strength of the team.

2. a captain must lead from the front.i mean he must be a great player first


So the best Indian captain for me was Kapil Dev.These are the reasons.
Kapil's career stats(i mean all round stats) as a captain was great. so in the case of 'lead from the front ' criteria Kapil outweighs both Dhoni & Ganguly. Ganguly was a great one day player but 'good' test player at best.Dhoni is a great one day player but a 'good' wk/batsman at best in tests.Ganguly possesed a team which can be perhaps termed as the best Indian team in history.Top 6 classy batsmen + 2 quality spinners + 2 very good seamers(Sreenath & Zaheer khan) made that team. So quite naturally Ganguly could attain better results.Dhoni's test record is pathetic to say the least(a claim can be made that Dhoni possesed a weaker test team when compared to that of Ganguly, yet Dhoni's record is not up to the mark even after taking what i told into consideration)

Kapil as a player had convincingly better stats than both Gang&Dhoni during his captaincy both in tests & one dayers.The Indian team he captained was no way nearer in overall strength when compared to that Of
Ganguly. Yet Kapil led India to 83 world cup victory by beating the mighty WI. What not he was the champion all rounder of that world cup with his impact displayed in every match of the tournament.
With the weak team he possesed he had a 2-0 series victory in ENG , a drawn series in AUS where he was the best all rounder, a 2-0 loss to mighty WI in a 5 test series (even that result was very good when the strength of that WI team is taken into account).In this WI series Kapil achieved perhaps the best ever all round performance in the history of test cricket by avg:ing 42.33 with the bat and 24 with the ball.Yes ... agreed Kapil had his flops as well, but when considering the team he possesed and the achivements he gained both as a player and as captain during captaincy, i am sure it is Kapildev
 
Feroz Rawther said:
first of all certain points to take note w.r.t captaincy

1. better win-loss record doesn't mean better captain because that depends on the over all strength of the team.

2. a captain must lead from the front.i mean he must be a great player first


So the best Indian captain for me was Kapil Dev.These are the reasons.
Kapil's career stats(i mean all round stats) as a captain was great. so in the case of 'lead from the front ' criteria Kapil outweighs both Dhoni & Ganguly. Ganguly was a great one day player but 'good' test player at best.Dhoni is a great one day player but a 'good' wk/batsman at best in tests.Ganguly possesed a team which can be perhaps termed as the best Indian team in history.Top 6 classy batsmen + 2 quality spinners + 2 very good seamers(Sreenath & Zaheer khan) made that team. So quite naturally Ganguly could attain better results.Dhoni's test record is pathetic to say the least(a claim can be made that Dhoni possesed a weaker test team when compared to that of Ganguly, yet Dhoni's record is not up to the mark even after taking what i told into consideration)

Kapil as a player had convincingly better stats than both Gang&Dhoni during his captaincy both in tests & one dayers.The Indian team he captained was no way nearer in overall strength when compared to that Of
Ganguly. Yet Kapil led India to 83 world cup victory by beating the mighty WI. What not he was the champion all rounder of that world cup with his impact displayed in every match of the tournament.
With the weak team he possesed he had a 2-0 series victory in ENG , a drawn series in AUS where he was the best all rounder, a 2-0 loss to mighty WI in a 5 test series (even that result was very good when the strength of that WI team is taken into account).In this WI series Kapil achieved perhaps the best ever all round performance in the history of test cricket by avg:ing 42.33 with the bat and 24 with the ball.Yes ... agreed Kapil had his flops as well, but when considering the team he possesed and the achivements he gained both as a player and as captain during captaincy, i am sure it is Kapildev
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good points.

leading from the front cocpet is something people dont talk about atleast from a statistical perspective when rating captains which really should also be taken into account
 
Feroz Rawther said:
first of all certain points to take note w.r.t captaincy

1. better win-loss record doesn't mean better captain because that depends on the over all strength of the team.

2. a captain must lead from the front.i mean he must be a great player first


So the best Indian captain for me was Kapil Dev.These are the reasons.
Kapil's career stats(i mean all round stats) as a captain was great. so in the case of 'lead from the front ' criteria Kapil outweighs both Dhoni & Ganguly. Ganguly was a great one day player but 'good' test player at best.Dhoni is a great one day player but a 'good' wk/batsman at best in tests.Ganguly possesed a team which can be perhaps termed as the best Indian team in history.Top 6 classy batsmen + 2 quality spinners + 2 very good seamers(Sreenath & Zaheer khan) made that team. So quite naturally Ganguly could attain better results.Dhoni's test record is pathetic to say the least(a claim can be made that Dhoni possesed a weaker test team when compared to that of Ganguly, yet Dhoni's record is not up to the mark even after taking what i told into consideration)

Kapil as a player had convincingly better stats than both Gang&Dhoni during his captaincy both in tests & one dayers.The Indian team he captained was no way nearer in overall strength when compared to that Of
Ganguly. Yet Kapil led India to 83 world cup victory by beating the mighty WI. What not he was the champion all rounder of that world cup with his impact displayed in every match of the tournament.
With the weak team he possesed he had a 2-0 series victory in ENG , a drawn series in AUS where he was the best all rounder, a 2-0 loss to mighty WI in a 5 test series (even that result was very good when the strength of that WI team is taken into account).In this WI series Kapil achieved perhaps the best ever all round performance in the history of test cricket by avg:ing 42.33 with the bat and 24 with the ball.Yes ... agreed Kapil had his flops as well, but when considering the team he possesed and the achivements he gained both as a player and as captain during captaincy, i am sure it is Kapildev
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Great post. Now I can't say Ganguly for sure.
 
sensible-indian-fan said:
Great post. Now I can't say Ganguly for sure.
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would be interesting to check stats of all 3 as captains.

For eg one of the reasons IK is rated so highly as captai nis his individual beastly performance. Lets see which of the indian skippers are best in that regard.
 
though i do think 'leading from front' aspect should just be one of the criteria and def wont put as much weight to it as Feroz Rawther
 
Kapil Dev:
Tests:
Batting: 32
Bowling: 26.3 :O

ODIs
Batting: 30.7
Bowling: 26.2

Sourav Ganguly
Tests:
Batting: 38

ODIs
Batting: 39
Bowling: 38

MS Dhoni
Tests:
Batting: 40.6

ODIs
Batting: 56 :O

Dammn Ganguly falls short a lot in this respect.

Still I wouldnt saya apart from Dhoni in ODIs theres huge standouts otherwsie. An ofcourse these are just stats which give a rough idea and certainly lack context
 
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Slog said:
Ponting lost: McGrath, Warne, Martyn, Hayden, Gilchrist, Gillespie, Langer - all in short time and replaced by inferior players. So not just a few players.

Anyways the point seems to be lost on you.
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Pretty sure Ponting lost with Hayden, Gilly still in the team. The point is Great Bowlers in the team makes a lot of difference.



You want tangible trophies etc for Ganguly for him to be called the best captain. Yoy say Dhoni has these achievements hence he should be such and fail to take into account the context and the strength of the team at disposal and the strength of opposition. Goibg by your criteria Ponting is the greatest captain of all time because hw won everything and more. (using your logic here.)
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Not after he lost his star bowlers.

In any case you cannot compare Dhoni's era and Ganguly's era. Dhoni did not have to face or deal with an all conquering side which is arguably the greatest cricket side assembled in the history of the game. If Dhoni did he would not have won the trophies or reached the top of test rankings (which was a short lived stay to begin with and imo the 1-1 draw in SA in 2010-11 was the only very impressive result.) The ODI World Cup win was in familiar conditions and India had the best side for those conditions.
Click to expand...

MSD Ran into the Aussies this WC and even with a far inferior team than what Ganguly had in 2003 he made it to the S/F ... its not his fault that he did not find Kenya there as Ganguly did in 2003.


Now coming to Ganguly's achievements per your criteria.

1-1 Draw in Australia (Dhoni cannot dream of that and lost 5 out of 6 Tests he captained in Oz.)
Reaching World Cup 2003 Final and only losing to arguably the greatest side in cricket history. Also this WC was in South Africa, conditions India struggle in, rather than India.
Champions Trophy
Built a team rather than being handed a great team.
Captain of the side which won its first ever series in Pakistan
Click to expand...

1-1 Draw in Aussie series did not feature Warne and McGrath .... thereby proving my point that Bowlers win Test Matches and thereby enhance the reputation of the Captains.Normal services resumed after they returned to the team in the 2004 series at home. Ganguly ran away from the action the moment he saw a Green pitch in Nagpur and was certain that defeat was on the cards. This is the part of Ganguly story that the Ganguly fansboys wont tell you.

Anyways back to that 2003 series ... Captain Great decided to bat on for First 2 days + 1 hour on the 3rd day of the deciding Test. Still could not win due to pathetic captaincy through out.

WC2003 -- (See Above) MSD Matches that . MSD Also won a VB Series in Aus when they were the No.1 Team.
Champions Trophy 2002 was shared with SL .
Built a Team -- This is one of the most ridiculous accolades that is bestowed on Ganguly ... none of the star players that played under him were picked by Ganguly ... certainly not from the Street. And then there is the Greg Chappell Saga which was all purely Ganguly's fault - Proposing a headstrong personality like Greg Chappell and then getting owned by him unable to meet his high standards of professionalism and fitness. As per Gregs own words " Ganguly thought that since he got Greg the coach job Greg would do whatever he said" ... lol.. Soon Ganguly found out that Greg wasnt going to be his yes-man after which Ganguly then had to resort to politics to settle things. That period from 2005-2007 was one of the worst period in recent times ... but people with short memories tend to forget these things.

First Ever Series Win in Pak -- Dravid was the captain for 2 out 3 Tests in that series :facepalm:

So as you can see Ganguly is in no way the "Messaiah" of Indian Cricket.
 
BTW MSD Drew in SAF 1-1 playing against the SAF team which was faar better than the Aussie team that Ganguly drew against in 2003.
 
Ganguly in Tests, Dhoni in ODIs.

In a real world, Virat Kohli is third best captain of Indian test team which is still a good achievement for him and fourth best in ODIs.
 
Although we have heard many stories about Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Wadekar (led India to test series victories in WI and Eng in 1971), my favorite is Ganguly in tests, he changed Indian cricket forever, changed the mindset, approach and set certain standards. In white ball formats easily Dhoni because of the 3 ICC trophies, the only captain who has won a WC, CT, WT20 each.

Kohli is extremely mediocre, can continue in tests because of lack of alternatives but must depart in ODIs and T20s, 3 formats, 3 captains. Give ODIs and T20s to Rohit for the short term and depending on how they captain in IPL, choose one of Rahul, Iyer as T20 captain next year. Rohit should lead us in 2023.
 
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I don't bother about stats and ICC medals.
For me Dada is the best, he transformed mediocre team to champion team.
He produced many match winners.
 
Swashbuckler said:
What makes you say that? He just had his best ever year in international cricket and the WC is in Feb-March meaning only over 30 months away.
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He"ll be 36 bro, even if he plays he will be a shadow of his former self so i highly doubt that bcci will make him captain.
 
Dhoni is India's best captain.

I think Kohli will finish as India's greatest test captain.
 
You can call him King Kong: Ravi Shastri names MS Dhoni as greatest white-ball captain ever

Virat Kohli might be the most successful Indian leader in the longest and oldest format of the gentlemen's game but when it comes to white-ball cricket, legendary cricketer MS Dhoni remained in a league of his own during his iconic international career for the Asian giants. Team India head coach Ravi Shastri strongly believes that skipper Kohli's predecessor Dhoni is the greatest white-ball captain in the history of the gentlemen's game.

Shastri, who is in speculations about calling time on his coaching stint after the conclusion of the ICC World T20 has lauded Dhoni for achieving almost everything the world of cricket had to offer in his glorious Team India captaincy stint. One of the most decorated cricketers in the history of the sport, Dhoni guided Team India to three major ICC titles.

After architecting India's T20 World Cup title triumph in the inaugural edition of the ICC World T20 in 2007, Dhoni ended the nation's 28-year long wait for the World Cup title in the 50-over format. The 2011-World Cup-winning captain also guided India to ICC Champions League glory in 2013. The Ranchi stalwart is the only captain to win all three major ICC trophies.

“Dhoni is the greatest white-ball captain ever. Just look at his record in ICC tournaments. What has he not won? IPL, Champions League, all ICC tournaments, two World Cups. There is no one close to him when it comes to white-ball cricket. He has to be the greatest. The King Kong, you can call him in that fashion,” Shastri told Fan Code.

https://www.timesnownews.com/sports/cricket/article/ravi-shastri-names-ms-dhoni-as-greatest-white-ball-captain-ever-you-can-call-him-king-kong-virat-kohli/819646
 
Heard this story the first time today. This man really built the team like a father

 
Kapil, Dhoni and Rohit achieved things which gave more happiness to the Indian fans so they should be the top 3.
 
Ganguly. He built up Indian side when they weren't that strong financially or that important to cricket.

Not that Kohli and Dhoni did a bad job but it's easier to lead when you have clout or backing. During Ganguly era India didn't have the same status in cricket yet he instilled a great confidence in the side.
 
Ganguly took over the team when it hit hard by match fixing , he brought in lot of younger players and gave them the right slots . It was he who set the ball rolling. His impact was the most.
 
Sourav Ganguly's captaincy extends way beyond just results. India were a timid team in the 90's despite the heroics of Kapil Dev as a captain in the 80's. The team was very happy to tour anywhere and just come with one or two drawn test matches. All this changed when Ganguly took over. He completely changed the team culture and this meant that opposition captain's could not bully India anymore. He also brought in players who had similar mentality as Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhajan etc into the fold. While India might not have won any trophies or high profile overseas series, they weren't a push over anymore. The same culture was taken forward by Dravid, Kumble and later MS Dhoni. So yeah Dhoni, Virat and Rohit have more celebrated achievements as Indian team captains but Sourav was the pioneer who changed the way world looks at the Indian team. I will always place him number 1 followed by MS Dhoni and then Rohit Sharma. Kapil comes after the 3 mentioned as he pulled a bunch of nobodies to win a World Title in 1983. Even Indian players did not think they had a chance to even progress to the next stage of the tournament and were planning a trip to the US from UK. Virat comes after that to inspire the Indian Test team and for promoting fast bowling culture in the test team. His results though pale in comparison to the others but he did change the way India played overseas. There is also Ajith Wadekar (Captain of the team which won in WI & England in 1971) and Rahul Dravid (Captained India to series wins in England and WI in 2006/07). So here is my Ranking:

1. S Ganguly
2. MS Dhoni
3. Rohit Sharma
4. Kapil Dev
5. Virat Kohli
6. Rahul Dravid
7. Ajith Wadekar

Azhar should nowhere in the list. He did win some series in India on square turners but he was a horrible captain overseas where the spinners did not give him wickets. He is also a convicted fixer.
 
Kapil
Ganguly
Dhoni
Rohit

will be on my list for sure... No particular order.
 
Tusker said:
Sorry. But as a proper fan that invests a lot of time following Indian Cricket ... I will take a captain that will win me more trophies ( thereby creating Everlasting fond Memories and Bragging rights to Cherish ) ... that too from limited resources .. than some meaningless intangibles like culture , team spirit etc etc and keep losing in every noteworthy finals. The only memorable moment from the Ganguly ERA was the Ind-vs-Aus Test series which was won mainly due to incredible once in a lifetime performances by VVS+Harbi .
Click to expand...
Natwest
 
Ganguly all the way, good combination of a great personality, speaker, strategist and a player . Provided the right direction to the team
 
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