5 reasons why Sourav Ganguly's team did much better than Virat Kohli's team overseas

Indian cricket may have a history of 85 years, but not every year is remembered with great fondness. In such a large span of time, any team is certain to go through ups-and-downs.

In 2000, cricket in India was perhaps at it's lowest ebb, following the Match-Fixing scandal that had tarnished its image. It required a breath of fresh air, a new direction.

At such a stage emerged a group of players, who were ambitious, hungry and driven enough to take the side forward and to take them ahead also emerged a leader in the form of Sourav Ganguly.

Between 2000 and 2005, under him, India played some superb cricket, not just at home but abroad as well and even now more than a decade after that, supporters of Indian cricket remember the wins, individual brilliance of those group of players fondly.

The present team under Virat Kohli is sporadically spoken as a side who could emulate Ganguly and his men, but right now are finding it hard to do that.

Here are five reasons why Ganguly's side did better overseas than Kohli's is doing right now:

Consistency in selection

When Kohli's term as India captain comes to an end, one of the talking points would be the manner in which he chopped and changed constantly. The only predictable about the change is the change itself, for no one in the present line-up knows whether they would play in two consecutive matches.

Under Ganguly, there was a consistency. Regardless of whether India had won the previous game or not, there was no doubting that Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman would form the fulcrum of the batting unit in the succeeding match.

The only time he chopped a bit was while choosing between Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh and later on, he admitted it wasn't the easiest decision to make.

The constancy meant that India could form the batting unit which became known as the 'Fab 5' and perhaps Kohli can take a cue from this.