Who is India's greatest captain in the 21st century?
The recent historic Test series win down under was a first for any Indian team visiting Australia. This had ignited the debate about the best Indian team ever when Ravi Shastri, the Indian coach himself declared his team to be the best. Although many do not agree with the views of Shastri regarding this.
One thing is certain though, the Indian bowling attack at present is one of the best that the country has ever produced. India has always been famed for it's batting over the decades and comparatively it was the bowling which used to be lackluster in its performance earlier, especially in overseas conditions more often than not.
While in recent times the batting of the team has been a bit shaky barring the Australian series, where the batsmen were also up to the mark. Therefore it is too early to call this team the best ever, as the team is developing and could grow to be even better than the present one. So leaving aside the best team debate for now.
What is really interesting is the level of growth in the Indian team in this current century. After the 2000s era, the team really started winning more overseas internationally in all the formats, rather than just dominating at home.
In this period the team has been led by greats like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, MS Dhoni and the current captain Virat Kohli. These are all great players with impeccable records to their names. Although, it is the trio of Kohli, Dhoni, and Ganguly who had a much longer and fruitful spells as captain considering they have led the teams in all formats.
As Kumble was just a Test match specialist by the time he took over the captaincy and Dravid had a heartbreaking 2007 World Cup first round exit as a big blot on his captaincy record. He did go on to redeem himself as a captain a bit when under his captaincy the Indian team went on to create a world record - chasing 17 ODI totals on the trot.
Comparing the record of three captain's below:
#1 Sourav Ganguly
ODI Record: 146 matches, Won: 76, Lost: 65, Win Percentage: 53.90
Test Record: 49 matches, Won: 21, Lost: 13, Drawn: 15, Win Percentage:42.5
#2 MS Dhoni
ODI Record: Matches: 199, Won: 110, Lost: 74, Tied: 4, No Result: 11, Win Percentage : 59.57
Test Record: Matches: 60, Won: 27, Lost: 18, Drawn: 15, Win Percentage: 45
T20I Record: Matches: 72, Won: 41, Lost: 28, Tied: 1, No Result: 2, Win Percentage: 56.94
#3 Virat Kohli
ODI Record: Matches: 61, Won: 44, Lost: 14, Tied: 1, No Result: 1, Winn Percentage: 72.13
Test Record: Matches 46, Won: 26, Lost: 10, Drawn: 10, Win Percentage: 56.52.
T20I Record: Matches: 20, Won: 12, Lost: 7, No Result: 1, Win Percentage: 60.00.
As can be gauged from the above stats, with each captain the performance of Indian cricket has enhanced going by the winning margin. But all three of these captains have a varying personality in leading the team. If we go by the stats, then Kohli is the undisputedly the best captain but even he would consider that he is still a work in progress.
His characteristics are sometimes over-aggressive, excitable, passionate leader who wants to push the limits and gives confidence to the young players. And above all, he is a batting mainstay to shoulder the responsibility of the team.
Dhoni has always had natural leadership qualities, and he got better with experience. Moreover, Dhoni had a calm head on his shoulders while captaining which helped in making the best decisions during crunch situations of the match. Dhoni's characteristics were being cool, the ability to take the right decisions at a proper time, get the better of his players, giving confidence to the youngsters were a boon to the team.
Ganguly had his own charisma of leading the Indian team. He had his class and India started to gain the confidence of playing well overseas while he was at the helm. He was aggressive, backed his players to the hilt, got the better-desired results from his players, and most importantly gave ample opportunities to players to prove their mettle.
The interesting thing to note here is that this trio's highest ODI score is the same i.e 183, and all of them became captain only after achieving this score.
Coming back to the real question, choosing the best captain, it's a tie between Dhoni and Ganguly. Dhoni has the undistinguished record of winning each one of the ICC trophies at least once; while his overseas away record in Test matches is the only blemish on his captaincy career, having led India to six winless series overseas.
Ganguly, on the other hand, has to be credited for creating and installing a fearless mindset into a team who could compete in any conditions whatsoever, the fruits of which are being borne even till today.
Kohli's numbers though outstanding, still don't have any major ICC trophy to show for them. He still has a far way to go and maybe in future, he can overtake both of them. Winning the upcoming ICC World Cup could just be the path to achieving greater heights.
In the postscript, we can understand that all of Ganguly, Dhoni, and Kohli have done wonders respectively for their nation.