Gautam Gambhir should have led the Indian team a lot more: Irfan Pathan

Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan believes that former opener Gautam Gambhir could have been a fantastic skipper for India. Gautam Gambhir led India in six ODIs and won each fixture as skipper.

Gautam Gambhir's leadership skills were recognized by KKR in 2011 as they bought him at the IPL auction and made him the captain of the side. Under his stewardship, KKR became one of the most successful teams in the IPL and won two titles in 2012 and 2014.

Gautam Gambhir's crucial innings in the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 World Cup were enough to prove that he had a cool head under pressure and was a genuine match-winner.

Gautam Gambhir led India in 6 ODIs between 2010 and 2011

Gautam Gambhir led India between 2010 and 2011, which included a 5-0 home win against New Zealand and a solitary victory against the West Indies.

“I have huge respect for Sourav Ganguly, I have great respect for the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and I think Gautam Gambhir should have led the Indian team a lot more as well than he did. He could have been a really good leader," Irfan Pathan told Cricket.com in an interview.

MS Dhoni was a result-oriented captain: Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan also compared the captaincy styles of Rahul Dravid and MS Dhoni. Irfan Pathan clarified that just because he admired the captaincy of other great Indian captains, did not mean that he disliked the captaincy of MS Dhoni.

India had a great record in ODIs under Rahul Dravid's captaincy but it was under MS Dhoni that India won all the three major ICC white-ball tournaments- the ICC Cricket World Cup, the ICC T20 World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy.

“People don’t talk about Rahul Dravid as much. So, people who don’t talk about Rahul Dravid as much, do they dislike him? No. Under his captaincy, India won 16 consecutive ODIs while chasing. Sometimes it gets under the wrap As winning captain, as a result-oriented captain and the guy who got the result, who had an excellent team, it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni," Irfan Pathan said.

Thus, Irfan Pathan compared the different captains that he played under and concluded that every captain had his own style of captaincy, which proved effective for them during their tenures.