Captain's Corner: Allan Border vs Sunil Gavaskar

Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar are two of the greatest cricketers to have ever set foot on the pitch. Both of them have been excellent practitioners of the art of batting and were the highest run-scorers in Test match cricket at one point of time.

Both players have been the captain of their respective national teams and have led their teams to some wonderful wins.

While Gavaskar has led India to two series wins over the mighty West Indies side consisting of the likes of Lloyd, Richards, Holding, and Roberts, Border led Australia to their maiden Cricket World Cup win in 1987.

Here’s a little statistical comparison between Sunil Gavaskar and Allan Border in order to find out who was the better captain between the two.

#1. Overall Record

Gavaskar's captaincy was centred around damage control

Allan Border has led Australia in more Tests than any other captain at 93 Tests with only Graeme Smith having led in more Test matches. In ODIs, Captain Grumpy has led Australia in 178 ODIs with only Ricky Ponting having led in more matches. He’s 5th in the most number of ODIs led behind Ponting, Stephen Fleming, MS Dhoni, and Arjuna Ranatunga.

Sunil Gavaskar has led India in 47 Tests and is joint-third amongst captains who have led India in more Tests along with Mohammad Azharuddin and behind MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. Sunny led India in only 37 ODIs from 1980-1985.

Gavaskar’s conservative approach to captaincy helped him draw out a number of Test matches but could only win 9 matches. Border did not have a very good start to his captaincy stint either but he later deployed a rather aggressive approach to his captaincy which eventually made him one of Australia’s finest skippers.

Border is the clear winner here with a much superior win percentage compared to Gavaskar’s in both Tests and ODIs.

#2. ICC Tournaments

Border led Australia to their maiden World Cup win

Unfortunately, Sunil Gavaskar never had the opportunity to lead India in any major tournaments due to Kapil Dev being handed the captaincy a year before the 1983 World Cup and Gavaskar later relinquishing the captaincy in 1985.

Border on the other hand, led Australia in two World Cups - in 1987 and 1992, winning the former.

#3. Away Record

Border's captaincy record in overseas ODIs has been pretty good

Neither of these players has a very good win percentage here, but Border has far more wins than Gavaskar outside Australia with 13 wins, 9 of them coming during the Ashes in England against an England side comprising the likes of Graham Gooch, Ian Botham and Allan Lamb, just to name a few.

Gavaskar may have attained only two victories away from India but both of them have come Down Under against Australia and New Zealand with both teams having a very formidable side back then.

To make the comparison a little fairer, I have also taken into consideration Border’s record for his first 18 Tests outside Australia as captain and he still edges out Gavaskar with a win percentage of 22.22%, having led Australia to a win 4 times.

Border surpasses Gavaskar here as well with a fairly decent win percentage of 58.73% in ODIs on foreign soil compared to Gavaskar’s 45.83%. Even though Border’s percentage is higher due to the larger number of matches, even if we take his first 24 matches, he has a win percentage of 54.17 with 13 wins.

#4. Home Record

Allan Border has a pretty decent captaincy record home

In Tests at home, Border surpasses Gavaskar with a win percentage of 36.54% compared to his 24.14% but that is only because of captaining Australia in more home Tests. If we take into account Border’s first 29 home Tests as captain, then he has won just as many Tests as Gavaskar did.

Here, the comparison would not be totally fair if we consider all of the ODIs captained by Allan Border at home as he has led Australia in more than 100 home ODIs than Gavaskar led India in.

Hence, to make the comparison fairer, Border’s record in his first 13 home ODIs as skipper was also considered. The World Cup winning skipper surpasses Gavaskar with a win percentage of 38.46% compared to Gavaskar’s 23.08%.

Nevertheless, Border’s captaincy in home ODIs has been pretty impressive, with the Australian winning 70 of the 114 matches in which he captained Australia.

#5. Performances as Captain

Allan Border's form never took a bad turn during his captaincy

Since Allan Border led Australia in nearly twice as many Tests as Sunil Gavaskar led India in, he has nearly twice as many runs as Gavaskar has as captain. However, both players have performed reasonably well as captains based on the number of Tests played by them with their batting averages nearly same and their highest score nearly identical.

In ODIs, Border has a pretty impressive record as captain with 4439 runs at an average of 32.16 while Gavaskar scored just 702 runs in 37 matches at an average of 26.

Even if the records for just 37 matches are considered, Border still surpasses Gavaskar comfortably as in his first 37 ODIs as captain, he scored 1186 runs at an average of 33.89.

Conclusion

Border's numbers are enough to suggest that he is a much better captain than Gavaskar

Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar are both terrific cricketers with quite different styles of captaincy. Gavaskar adopted a pretty conservative technique which helped India stay unbeaten in a number of matches but could not fetch many victories.

Border, on the other hand, had a similar technique but later on became an aggressive skipper which eventually helped Australia lift the 1987 World Cup. Towards the end of his career, he established himself as a wonderful captain.

Both Border and Gavaskar are players of herculean proportion but as far as captaincy is concerned, the Australian is way, way ahead than the Indian opener. Border’s Test numbers as a captain may not be as convincing as the likes of Steve Waugh or Ricky Ponting but are still better than those of Gavaskar.

His ODI records as a captain have been pretty good and are quite better compared to those of Gavaskar. Hence, by looking at their numbers it is more than fair to tell that Allan Border was a much better skipper compared to Sunil Gavaskar.