5 decisions by Dhoni and Ganguly that changed the fate of Indian cricket

India have produced some wonderful leaders over the years. But if we talk about Indian captains, the discussion will be incomplete if we don't mention the names of MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly was aggressive by nature, and is widely regarded as one of finest to lead the Indian cricket team. He took over the team after the 2000 match-fixing saga and transformed it completely.

Ganguly always backed his players. The likes of Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Ashish Nehra, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif were an integral part of Ganguly's Indian team.

On the other hand, Dhoni was known for his cool nature and he created a dynamic Indian team. He is the only captain to win all the three major ICC trophies. Winning the 2011 World Cup was the highest point of his captaincy career, and he also took the Indian team to the No. 1 ranking in both Tests and ODIs.

These two legends made some crucial decisions which changed the fate of the Indian cricket forever. Here is a look at five of those:

#1 Ganguly asking Sehwag to open the innings

Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly

Virender Sehwag made his Test debut in 2001 against South Africa. He batted at number six and scored a century in his debut innings.

In 2002, Ganguly's Indian team traveled to England to play a four-match Test series. It was then that he made a big decision which surprised everyone - he asked Sehwag to open the innings.

Sehwag smashed 84 runs in 96 balls in his first Test innings as an opener. There was no looking back after that.

He scored a century in the next Test too, at Trent Bridge. Sehwag completely changed the nature of Test cricket with his aggressive batting, and brought many fans back to the format.

His records as Test opener are mind-blowing. He became the first Indian to score a triple century in Test history, and is also one of the few cricketers to have scored two triple centuries.

Sehwag scored 250+ four times, which is the most by anyone in Test cricket history. He slammed 22 centuries in 170 innings as a Test opener.

We would have missed out on such an entertainer if Ganguly had not asked him to open in Tests in 2002.

#2 Dhoni pushing Rohit Sharma as ODI opener

Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni

Rohit Sharma came into the Indian setup with the tag of the most talented player in domestic cricket. He used to bat in the middle order for India in ODIs, and had a very poor start to his ODI career.

Rohit managed to score only two centuries in his first 86 ODI innings.

It was during the 2013 Champions Trophy that Dhoni promoted Rohit as an ODI opener and as they say, the rest is history. He scored a half-century in the very first match, and hasn't looked back since.

Rohit along with Shikhar Dhawan have formed a prolific opening pair for India since 2013. And Rohit’s career graph has gone only upwards since he started opening the innings.

He became only the third Indian to score a double century in ODI history, in the year 2013. He then smashed 264 against Sri Lanka in 2014, which is still the highest ever individual score in ODI cricket.

Rohit is the first and so far only cricketer to score three double centuries in ODIs.

#3 Ganguly picking Harbhajan Singh in the 2001 Australia series

Harbhajan Singh took 32 wickets in that 3-match series

India were going through a tough period in the early 2000s due to the match-fixing issue. The BCCI was looking for a fresh face to lead the depleted team, and that's when Sourav Ganguly was appointed as the Indian captain.

He completely revamped the team with his own set of players. Yuvraj Singh was the find of the 2000 Champions Trophy, and India ended the tournament as runners-up.

Ganguly kept looking for talents in the domestic circuit. Harbhajan Singh made his Test debut in 1998. And after a two-year gap, Ganguly brought him back to play in the 2001 Test series against Australia.

That turned out to be a masterstroke as the young spinner took 32 wickets in the three-match series. He also became the first Indian to take a hat-trick in Test cricket.

India went on to win the series 2-1 and it turned out to be a big turning point in Indian cricket history.

#4. Dhoni backing Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni

The flamboyant Virat Kohli came into the limelight when the India U19 team won the World Cup under his leadership. He was immediately drafted into the Indian ODI set-up, but was not converting his starts into big scores at the start.

Kohli managed to score only three half-centuries in his first 13 Test innings and three half-centuries in his first 13 ODI innings. However, he was backed relentlessly by MS Dhoni.

Kohli himself confirmed this when Dhoni announced his retirement from captaincy in 2017 as he said:

"He (Dhoni) will always be the person who guided me initially and gave me opportunities. He gave me ample time and space to grow as a cricketer, saved me from getting dropped from the team many times."

Kohli’s success in international cricket is evident to everyone. He has become one of the most prolific international cricketers India has ever produced, having already scored 60+ international centuries to go along with 19000+ international runs.

#5 Ganguly promoting Dhoni in 2005

MS Dhoni during his 183* against Sri Lanka

As mentioned earlier, Ganguly set up his own team. Now India had struggled for a good wicketkeeper batsman ever since Nayan Mongia retired; they tried numerous keepers but most of them failed.

That's when MS Dhoni entered international cricket, in the year 2004. Dhoni was just four innings old in ODI cricket, and wasn't getting adequate opportunities to bat. Hence, Ganguly promoted him to number three against Pakistan.

Dhoni smashed 148 runs and announced himself to world cricket. He then scored a marvelous 183* against Sri Lanka which is still the highest score by a wicketkeeper in ODI history.

After a poor run by India at the 2007 World Cup, Dhoni was appointed as the T20I captain. The young Indian team under MS won the inaugural T20I World Cup in South Africa.

The rest, as they say, is history, as the former Indian captain went to win all the possible trophies in the cricketing world.