'MS Dhoni was a better captain than Sourav Ganguly in white-ball cricket' - Gautam Gambhir
Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has rated MS Dhoni as a better limited-overs captain than Sourav Ganguly, purely because of the number of trophies the former has won. He was quick to add that MS Dhoni had the luxury of an experienced team which had been groomed by Ganguly at his disposal.
A host of former cricketers like Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan, Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith debated the captaincy credentials of MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly in ODI cricket, in the latest edition of the Star Sports Show Cricket Connected.
Gautam Gambhir believed that MS Dhoni had an upper hand over Sourav Ganguly when it came to the captaincy in white-ball cricket simply because the wicketkeeper-batsman has won all the major ICC tournaments.
"MS Dhoni was a better captain than Sourav Ganguly in white-ball cricket, especially if you talk about the trophies alone. T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy, 50-over World Cup - there is nothing else left to win in ICC tournaments as he has won everything."
"As a captain, obviously you cannot have a better record. So, I have no doubt that in white-ball cricket MS Dhoni has an upper hand over Sourav Ganguly."
But Gambhir went on to add that MS Dhoni had the advantage of an experienced team playing under him, a squad that was groomed and nurtured by Sourav Ganguly.
"When Ganguly took over as captain he had an inexperienced team, players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Mohammad Kaif were raw."
"When MS Dhoni took over as captain all these players were world-beaters, so that probably was the reason. MS Dhoni didn't convert them into players who could handle pressure better."
"But MS Dhoni would be rated higher only because he had experienced cricketers who started under Sourav Ganguly."
Irfan Pathan pointed out that MS Dhoni is rated slightly higher as an ODI captain only because the Indian team under Sourav Ganguly was unlucky not to cross the final hurdle in crucial ICC tournaments.
"If you talk about the Champions Trophy in 2002 when India finshed as joint-winners with Sri Lanka, there also the Indian team had an upper hand. If that match had happened, the Indian team would have been the sole winners of the Champions Trophy."
"There the captain was Sourav Ganguly, so Ganguly and MS Dhoni would have been equal there. If you talk about 2003, we had an outstanding team that played the final, if we had won that one match we would have won the World Cup under Sourav Ganguly."
"So only because of one-one match the scale is slightly tilted towards MS Dhoni."
Kumar Sangakkara and Graeme Smith on MS Dhoni as an ODI captain
Kumar Sangakkara highlighted MS Dhoni's prowess of delivering on the big occasion as the reason behind his success in limited-overs tournaments.
"MS Dhoni's ability to win the big moments in games was exceptional. I would say the reason for that was that he had a trusted gameplan. He trusted himself to deliver on those decision-making instances with clarity and that gave a lot of confidence to his players."
Graeme Smith opined that the two main contributing factors for the comparatively lesser success enjoyed by Sourav Ganguly as an ODI captain were the absence of a finisher like MS Dhoni in his squad and the quality of the dominant Australian team in that era.
"Biggest difference between Dada's captaincy and MS Dhoni's captaincy is Dhoni the player. In that middle order, the ability to close games in the calm way and the confidence that he brought to the people around him."
"I think that is probably the biggest difference between the two eras. If Dada had an MS type player and his team was slightly more developed, I think you would have seen him go and win plenty more trophies."
"Also Dada was not blessed to play when Australian cricket was at the forefront and dominating the world game as well."
Sourav Ganguly captained India in 146 ODIs with a win percentage of approximately 52%. His greatest accomplishments as an ODI captain were finishing as joint-winners of the 2002 Champions Trophy, runners-up in the 2003 World Cup and winning the often-spoken Natwest Trophy final.
MS Dhoni led India in 200 ODI matches, winning approximately 55% of those encounters. His biggest achievements were winning the 2011 ODI World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy, apart from the 2007 World Cup in the T20 format. He was also the captain of the Indian team that won the 2008 CB Series in Australia, an ODI tournament win in the country after 23 years.
But the biggest difference between the two great Indian captains was their record in ODI finals. While Sourav Ganguly's team won only 1 of the 14 finals they were involved in, the Indian team under MS Dhoni managed to win 7 out of the 11 deciding encounters.