Ganguly took the team to a certain level, MS Dhoni and Kohli took it forward: Deep Dasgupta
Former Indian wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta believes that Sourav Ganguly, as a skipper, laid the foundation for a strong Indian team, and MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli have built on the foundation as captains.
When asked by SportsTiger that who among the three was the best captain, Dasgupta said that it was more like a chain reaction. He believes that Dhoni would not have achieved what he achieved had Ganguly not laid a strong foundation. Similarly, he also feels that Virat Kohli would have not achieved what he achieved had Dhoni not done what he did for Indian cricket.
MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli took the team forward: Deep Dasgupta.
Sourav Ganguly backed youngsters like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, etc, and helped turn them into world-class players. These players went on to form an important part of MS Dhoni's team that won the 2011 World Cup and also reached the summit of the ICC Test Rankings.
MS Dhoni backed players like Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order and now they have become world-class players and an important part of Virat Kohli's team.
MS Dhoni was backed by Ganguly and he was such an important part of Virat Kohli's team too. Thus, Dasgupta believes that the success of each of the captains was interdependent on one another.
"I would say this that Sourav (Ganguly) got the team to a certain level, MS Dhoni took it forward and now Virat Kohli is taking it forward. So now what Virat Kohli is doing now won't be possible if Sourav wouldn't have done what he did under his captaincy," Deep Dasgupta said.
"For that matter Virat would not have been able to take his team forward if MS Dhoni wouldn't have done what he did and same goes with MS Dhoni. So I think its like a chain reaction," he further added.
Deep Dasgupta also believes that it was unfair to compare captains of different eras. He highlighted the role played by captains like Ajit Wadekar, who led the Indian team to Test series wins away to England and West Indies back in 1971.
Deep Dasgupta also praised Kapil Dev's captaincy in the 1983 World Cup win and Sunil Gavaskar's role as a skipper in the 1985 Benson and Hedges World Series.