8 greatest Indian Test captains of all time

#2 Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly is regarded by some as the greatest captain to have led the Indian Cricket Team

Every international cricket team has had its phases. Phases when everything goes right, and phases when nothing does. The once mighty West Indies have gone through a terrible phase over the past two decades and now languish amongst the bottom placed teams in the Test setup.

South Africa, who until 2015 where the top-ranked Test nation, have also seen an abysmal slide over the past 12 months or so.

India to be quite honest, were undergoing a similar phase between late 1999 and early 2000. India had been clean swept by Australia down under, and by South Africa at home, and the emergence of the spot-fixing activities that tarnished the image of Indian cricket and saw the alleged involvements of the then stalwarts like Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja, had left Indian cricket poorer and the fans heartbroken.

It was then that the selectors put their faith in a Bengal-born left-hander, Sourav Ganguly, to lead the Indian cricket team.

The results were immediately on display as Ganguly started his captaincy tenure with one of the greatest Test series wins in the history of Indian cricket. In 2001, Australia came to India after having whitewashed the subcontinental nation at home. After losing the 1st Test in Mumbai, the hosts came back from behind winning the second Test at Kolkata after being asked to follow-on by the visitors.

VVS Laxman’s 281 and Rahul Dravid’s 180 changed the game on its head after Australia had scored 445 in the 1st innings and had bowled out India for 171. India declared their 2nd innings at 657/7 thereby setting the visitors a target of 384 runs, which they fell short of by 171 runs.

Harbhajan Singh grabbed 13 wickets in that match including a hat-trick in the 1st innings. That was the beginning of another era of home dominance post the traumatic times that had befallen upon the team at the turn of the century, as India lost just 1 home Test series in the next five years – against Australia in 2004.

But, it was more than just for these victories that Ganguly’s captaincy was remembered for. India had become an irrelevant Test playing nation away from home over the past 10 years, as neither of the previous two Test captains – Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin – could manage to win India a series outside the subcontinent.

The series defeats didn’t hurt as much as the inability of the Indian team to win a single Test outside the subcontinent between 1990 and 2000. That’s one decade of a winless streak.

All of this changed when Ganguly took the reins, and although he could only manage series victories against Zimbabwe – the streak was finally broken in 2001 when India defeated Zimbabwe at Bulawayo – outside the subcontinent, the tours to England and Australia of 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively saw India play some brilliant counter-attacking cricket and drew both of those series 1-1 (4 Tests).

All of India’s batting heavyweights scored heavily during those two tours. Sachin Tendulkar scored a memorable 193, and Ganguly and Dravid followed him with centuries of their own at Headingley to help India beat England in England for the first time since 1986, while Dravid and VVS Laxman owned the Adelaide Oval to give India their first Test victory in Australia since 1987.

In 2002, India won a Test in the West Indies for the first time since 1975 under Ganguly’s captaincy.