MS Dhoni was lucky that Kapil Dev won 1983 WC and Sourav Ganguly gave the team self-belief: Maninder Singh
Former Indian cricketer Maninder Singh recently opined that Sourav Ganguly might be better than Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni in terms of captaincy. According to him, the two former skippers are on the same page as leaders but Sourav Ganguly is the best.
The former left-arm spinner was talking to Hindustan Times when he made these comparisons.
“I loved Ganguly’s captaincy. See what all he has given Indian cricket. He was a great judge of talent. For me, to be honest, Sourav Ganguly was the best.”
Singh highlighted that Sourav Ganguly helped India unearth several young cricketers and make the most of their talent. The 55-year-old also spoke about how the former skipper helped Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid make a bigger impact on the team.
“He (Sourav Ganguly) made Rahul Dravid keep wickets. Dravid scored ten thousand runs in ODI cricket. Sehwag was a middle-order batsman, he told him to open in South Africa. I’ll give you these Test matches in South Africa, if you fail, I give you a guarantee that you won’t be dropped, I will play you in the middle order.”
1983 World Cup win helped the likes of Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni: Maninder Singh
The former left-arm spinner, who made his international debut a year before India’s first World Cup triumph, believes that the 1983 victory gave future generations that India could win it again.
He is of the view that Kapil Dev was positive, calm, and tactically very good, much like MS Dhoni is today, but that belief was missing in the team. The maiden world title gave the belief that Indian cricket could scale new heights.
“When Kapil Dev was the captain that belief was missing. Otherwise, the positivity, the calmness, the captaincy instincts of these two is the same. For me, Kapil and Dhoni are on the same page.”
Maninder Singh also credits Sourav Ganguly for instilling the belief that the Indian team could beat any side in any conditions.
“Dhoni was lucky that Kapil Dev won us the World Cup in 1983 then Dhoni was lucky that before him it was Sourav Ganguly, who made us believe that we can beat any team and in any conditions, so Dhoni got that.”
The former Punjab spinner represented India in 35 Tests and 49 ODIs between 1982 and 1993, taking 88 and 66 wickets respectively.