Harsha Bhogle picks favourite Indian captain
Harsha Bhogle picked Sourav Ganguly as his favourite captain from a star-studded list that included the likes of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Bhogle lauded the efforts of each captain who took the team forward in their own way.
Bhogle was joined by former South Africa captain Shaun Pollock in a Live Instagram session with the official ICC handle. The commentator reasoned his pick by listing out the impact of Ganguly during the tumultuous match-fixing phase in the late 90s and early 2000s.
He answered a fan question which said:
"Who is your favourite Indian captain of all time?"
Harsha Bhogle replied:
"India have been very blessed with captains in the last 20 years. Coming out of that whole match-fixing phase, when you wanted a dynamic and in-your-face captain, you had a Ganguly. Not much talked about, Rahul Dravid's record for two years as captain was excellent. Then you had, during that terrible Sydney Test match, Anil Kumble's strong presence there. Then Dhoni, now Kohli. We have actually been lucky but I think in many ways as the Aussies talk about Allan Border as someone who changed their cricket, we talk about Sourav Ganguly."
Harsha Bhogle's reason for picking Ganguly
After the match-fixing scandal broke and India endured tough times under Sachin Tendulkar's captaincy, Sourav Ganguly was handed the responsibility of re-building the team.
After major changes, Ganguly tasted success in overseas tours. His inclusion and backing of young talent like Virendra Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh showed immediate impact and brought the faith of the public back into reckoning.
Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid prospered immensely under Ganguly's inspirational leadership, and India started to appear as a force to deal with even in foreign conditions.
It was under Ganguly's leadership that India reached the finals of the World Cup after a gap of twenty long years. Although his stint as captain and as a player faced harsh criticism under coach Greg Chappell, Ganguly proved himself repeatedly through some good performances in the domestic arena for Bengal.