5 highly successful Captain-Vice Captain pairs in Cricket
In cricket, a captain is undoubtedly the boss as he is the one who runs the team. He is the one who decides what’s good and what’s bad for the team. It is also expected that he will lead from the front and set examples for his other teammates. But as a family can’t be run by a single person, a cricket team also needs someone other than the skipper to hold the team together. In cricket, such a post exists and that is famously known as the ‘Vice Captain’.
There have been famous captain-vice captain pairs in the history of cricket. A vice-captain complements the captain in so many ways. The recent example has to be the famous pairing of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, the current Indian captain and the vice-captain respectively complement each other in many ways. They are characteristically poles apart but they both are the pillars of their side.
The amalgamation of Dhoni’s inimitable coolness and Kohli’s natural aggression have worked wonders for India in the past few years as they have successfully built a side which is a force to reckon with in the shorter formats of the game. They even lead by examples as both are excellent performers as well.
There are other instances in cricket as well when the combo of the skipper and his deputy has been super successful. Even the camaraderie between the two is so important to run a successful team. Let’s have a look at 5 successful Captain- Vice Captain pairs in cricket.
1. Sourav Ganguly-Rahul Dravid
Indian cricket was under the tenebrous cloud of match-fixing when the elegant left-hander Sourav Ganguly took over the charge of the Indian team. He had the arduous job of rejuvenating the demoralized squad and getting them back to winning ways.
Sourav led from the front as he rebuilt the squad and changed Indian cricket forever. It was under his leadership that India managed to win overseas and challenged tougher opponents in their own dens. However, one mustn’t forget the contribution of his deputy Rahul Dravid.
Dravid was exceptional with the bat in the longer format as he scored a plethora of runs outside India to propel India to memorable test wins at Headingley and Adelaide. In the ODI format, Rahul was burdened with the responsibility of keeping wickets for the sake of the team as skipper Ganguly wanted to play an extra batsman.
Their great camaraderie was evident and both had immense respect for each other’s abilities. This was a was a hit jodi for sure. Ganguly’s aggression and Rahul’s patience worked wonders for the Indian cricket team.