Ravi Shastri hails MS Dhoni as the greatest captain

What's the story?

Ever since taking over as captain of the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli has achieved a lot of success in the limited time. So much so, that critics and fans have already begun comparing him with MS Dhoni’s record and numbers as captain.

However, it seems a little too early to do that as Dhoni was the captain of the side for an extremely long period of time whereas Kohli has been the Test captain only for three years and limited overs captain for just a few months.

While speaking to a Bengal Daily, Indian coach Ravi Shastri felt that Kohli is catching up to Dhoni, who he hailed as the greatest captain ever.

“The guy has won two world titles - a World Cup and a World T20. Beside that, he has also finished runner-up in another World T20. He played in the semi-finals of two other World T20 and World Cups. People often talk about his limited-over record, but compare Dhoni’s Test with any captain and it will show who is the greatest ever ,” Shastri said about Dhoni.

“Virat is progressing in the same direction as well,” he concluded.

In case you didn’t know…

Ravi Shastri took over as the coach of the Indian cricket team on July 11 and achieved a victory in his first Test at the helm against Sri Lanka.

This happened after Anil Kumble decided to step down as the coach citing differences with Kohli. Shastri, on the other hand, shares a great camaraderie with captain Virat Kohli and the duo seems to gel well with each other.

The Details:

Kohli’s record as captain of the Indian Test side has been fantastic, especially over the past one year where India lost only one match against Australia.

Shastri went on to praise Kohli’s leadership and batting as well saying that he has not seen anyone break as many records since Sachin Tendulkar.

However, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly was of the opinion that Kohli hasn’t been tested too much as captain given the fact that India have played most of their matches in the sub-continent under him.

What’s next?

India’s tour of Sri Lanka continues as Kohli’s men will take on the Islanders in the second Test which begins on August 3.

Author’s take:

As Shastri claimed, Dhoni is arguably the greatest captain ever with the fantastic record he has. However, it is too early to compare him with Kohli who has not been at the helm for too long. The comparisons could probably start once the 2019 World Cup concludes as Kohli would have had a lot of experience as captain by then.

It will also be extremely interesting to see how the Indian side performs under Kohli’s leadership in the tour to South Africa later this year.