5 reasons why Sourav Ganguly was a better captain than MS Dhoni

Indian cricket, without a doubt, has been fortunate to have had many great captains over its 82-year history. While many players of the past, who were bestowed with the honour of captaining the country, might not have had great numbers to back them up, it would be disingenuous to ignore their contribution in enabling Indian cricket enjoy the status it enjoys currently.Having said that, it would be safe to say that Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni are, by far, the two most popular captains India have had, and debates centering on the greatest skipper ever often come down to a choice between the two just mentioned.Dhoni, undoubtedly, has a better winning percentage as captain in both Test and ODI cricket, apart from having won the ICC World Cup in 2011 which Ganguly never quite managed. But it would be facile, in my opinion, to pronounce Dhoni as the superior captain without scratching beneath the surface and taking into account the circumstances during their time as captain.Here are five reasons why Ganguly just edges out Dhoni as a captain:

#1 Took over captaincy after the match-fixing saga

Sourav Ganguly, for a start, took over as captain at the toughest time that Indian cricket has ever faced in its long history. Afflicted by the match-fixing scandal in 2000, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) deposed their faith in Ganguly to take over the reins from Mohammad Azharuddin. Not only was Ganguly entrusted with the task of helping India win cricket matches after a prolonged period of failure, but he also had to somehow restore the faith of the Indian fan. And he did so in splendid fashion with the able help of players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble alongside him.

MS Dhoni, relatively at least, took over at a much smoother time for Indian cricket and had a group of players at his disposal who were truly at the peak of their powers. Since 2011, Dhoni hasn’t been able to match up to his early success and that is because of the fact that his established players, who had served him so well previously, were on the wane, which only goes to show how difficult a job Ganguly had on his hands while taking over.

#2 Overseas record

Every Indian captain knows that he will be judged on his record away from India while playing in conditions that are, by and large, unfavourable to the team, and in this regard, Ganguly has well and truly outshone Dhoni. Out of Ganguly’s 28 Tests away from home as captain, India won 11 and had a winning percentage of 39.3%. In comparison, Dhoni has managed to win only 6 of the 28 Tests he has captained overseas, resulting in a winning percentage of 21.4%.

While Ganguly might not have presided over a Test series victory outside the sub-continent, he did manage to draw the series in England in 2002 as well as the series Down Under against a distinguished Australian side a year later and always ensured that his team remained competitive, which Dhoni hasn’t managed so far at least.

#3 Played a critical role in shaping the careers of some key players

One should also not overlook the fact that Ganguly brought on the likes of Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, and Zaheer Khan and played a critical role in turning them into world-beaters, something which Dhoni has enjoyed the benefit of during his tenure as skipper.

Ganguly identified players whom he believed had potential to serve the Indian team for a considerable period and was willing to back them to the hilt, even if it had the scope of souring his relations with the selectors.

Sehwag, for example, who is one of the greatest openers India have ever had, wouldn’t have had the impact he has had if not for Ganguly. He, initially, was a middle-order batsman and wasn’t finding a place in the Test side as the middle-order spots were occupied by Dravid, Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Ganguly himself. Ganguly felt that it was unjust to have someone of Sehwag’s ability sitting out of the Test team and found him a place at the top of the order in place of a specialist opener, even though Sehwag, himself, had very little confidence that he could adapt to the role.

#4 Changed the face of Indian cricket

Indian cricket, before the 2000s, enjoyed nowhere near the kind of respect that it does today. That is only partly to do with the money of the BCCI, with Ganguly deserving a huge amount of credit in this respect.

Unlike Indian captains of the past, who were susceptible to being bullied by sides like Australia and England, Ganguly was not one to be messed around with and often gave as good as he got from the opposition. Like Arjuna Ranatunga of Sri Lanka, Ganguly sent out a strong message that Indian cricket was to be respected through both his approach and, more importantly, results in difficult conditions.

While Ganguly, in terms of his behaviour, might have only been putting on a façade in order to create a certain image for himself, it certainly produced the desired effect as the young Indian players had a much more aggressive outlook as opposed to players of the past.

#5 Batting record as captain outside the sub-continent

The Indian team, arguably, enjoyed their greatest period outside the sub-continent when Ganguly was at the helm of affairs, and his own batting record played an instrumental role in it being so.

He averaged 40.23 with the bat outside Asia as captain and played a number of match-defining knocks in that period, the most notable being his innings of 128 against England at Headingley and 144 against Australia in Brisbane.

Dhoni, meanwhile, is yet to register a Test hundred outside Asia and averages a moderate 31.85 as captain outside the sub-continent. While it is true that batting at No.7 often deprives him of batting with the recognized batsmen, he will still have to improve significantly on that front in order to match up to Ganguly.