Who is the better captain? Ganguly or Dhoni?

The Hot Debate

Indian public has been divided on this topic – who is the better captain between Ganguly and Dhoni? Both of them achieved success in their own ways and both of them had their own contrasting ways of captaining the sides. So how do we compare them? On what parameters can we decide who is better? It is really a tough question. Indian public and experts are both divided on this topic.

In this article, I have analyzed taking into account the scenario in which they took over as captain, their unique character, the masterstroke decisions which they took and most importantly the impact they created on the team.

Contribution of Ganguly

Backdrop

It was a time when India was under the cloud of match fixing and Sachin stepped down as captain. One of the desperate situations in Indian cricket and Sourav Ganguly accepted to lead to India. That showed the courage of the man himself.

Unique character of Ganguly

What did Ganguly bring to the table as captain of India? One main thing is that he was never afraid of criticisms and he backed the players he wanted and they had full confidence in him. He was aggressive and he had vision for the team. He looked at the future and had plans for it which was clearly not present with the old captains of India.

Masterstroke decisions

Some of the masterstroke decisions taken by Ganguly were asking VVS Laxman to bat at no.3 in the second innings of Kolkata test, asking Sehwag to open the batting in test matches, asking Srinath to come out of retirement to play in the 2003 World Cup and backing Yuvraj and Harbhajan during their tough times and make them an integral part of them team and asking Dravid to keep wickets in the One Day matches to balance the team composition.

Ganguly’s Impact

Without any doubt, Ganguly will be remembered for changing India’s face in test cricket while traveling abroad. Till 2000, India were considered as lions at home but poor travelers. But ever since Ganguly took over, the respect which Indian team demanded overseas was enormous. India moved from world no.8 to world no.2 under his captaincy. The confidence that he was able to instil into the deflated team was unbelievable.

We all will remember Dhoni for his World Cup 2011 final knock and that will remain his defining knock of his career. But what is the equivalent for Ganguly? What is his defining knock? Many people will not remember it but it has to be the 144 he scored in Brisbane against Australia in the first test in 2003-04 series. India were whitewashed in the previous series and never had a good record in Australia and in foreign conditions as a whole. Ganguly took this as a challenge in his first tour of Australia as captain and he really led from the front. That knock really turned India’s fortunes and we really had the upper hand in that entire series to the surprise of many cricket pundits.

Many would say Ganguly is remembered as captain for two reasons. One for developing a team from scratch after the match fixing episode and the other is making the Indian team brave travelers outside the sub-continent.

The following table gives a clear picture of what Ganguly did to the Indian team. Here we compare the captaincy of Ganguly and Dhoni in the overseas tests.

Captain	Period	Matches	Won	Lost	Draw/Tie	Win %
Ganguly	1999-2005	28	11	10	7	39%
Dhoni	2007-Present	19	5	9	5	26%

We should not forget that when Ganguly took over as captain of the India, the test team was in very bad condition. He had to build a team and then the team started performing well overseas. In the case of Dhoni, the situation is completely different. When he took over as captain, the test team was in a much better condition but the present India’s face in world cricket as test team is looked the same way it was looked pre-Ganguly era. It is very clear that Ganguly has done what no Indian captain was able to achieve in the test front – including Dhoni.

Having looked at Ganguly’s strengths, what makes him stand apart and where he scores over Dhoni, let us now look from Dhoni’s perspective and look what made him stand apart from Ganguly and others.

Contribution of Dhoni

Backdrop

When Dhoni took over as captain, the Indian test team was in very good condition but there were a lot of issues with the One-day team. The 2007 World cup loss came as a shock to many and so did Dravid’s announcement resigning from the captaincy. There were also questions about whether seniors should continue in the one day team or not and whether the team should be developed with the 2011 World cup in mind. It was a challenging time to take over as captain as far as the ODI team was concerned.

Unique character of Dhoni

Dhoni is a completely different captain when it comes to character when compared to the past captains India had. He is calm, composed, has good control over his nerves and cool headed. He is a champion who is making the best out of the given resources.

Masterstroke decisions

Who will forget Dhoni promoting himself to no.5 ahead of in form yuvraj in the world cup final? Selecting Raina ahead of Yusuf Pathan in the world cup knockout matches was a great move which paid off. While defending targets, giving the penultimate over to the most experienced bowler and the last over to the least experienced bowler, asking for a younger ODI team without the likes of Dravid for his first overseas assignment as captain to Australia in 2008 are some of his masterstroke decisions.

Dhoni’s Impact

Ganguly changed India’s face while traveling abroad, especially while playing in pressure situations. This is the major impact created by Dhoni to the Indian team especially in ODIs. Indians were considered chokers when they reached the final and the records also show the same.

In the following table, we will see how India performed under Ganguly and Dhoni in the tournament finals.

Captain	Matches	Won	Lost	No result/tie	Win %
Ganguly	15	2	11	2	13.33
Dhoni	8	5	3	0	62.50

Even though Ganguly took Indian team to greater heights, when we look at his 6 year tenure as captain and ask what titles we won, then only Natwest trophy comes to our mind. Apart from that, we did win some bilateral series but we also faltered at the finals under Ganguly and the records clearly show that. In fact, it was not only during Ganguly’s regime our record was poor in the finals. When we look at the past two decades or so, we have come up short most of the time on the big occasions.

India’s image in the finals completely changed under the captaincy of Dhoni. He has won more finals than he lost and his record in Twenty20 for both India and his IPL franchise is unbelievable. As the game gets shorter, the role of the captain becomes more important they say and it is very true in Dhoni’s case. He is the man for the pressure situations and he has nerves of steel. His ability to withstand pressure and remain calm in crunch situations has helped him to achieve heights which was not possible for many other captains.

Under his captaincy, there is a belief that Indians do well when they are under pressure and the tag which India had in pre-Dhoni era was completely opposite – chokers. Full credit goes to Dhoni in this regard. To strengthen this case of argument, we can also look at his IPL team – CSK. There is a general belief that if CSK reaches knockout phase they are tough to beat. Where did this belief come from? One again, we have to give it to Dhoni for this.

My Verdict

Both Ganguly and Dhoni have excelled in their own ways and have made contributions to Indian cricket in their own way. Well, choosing who the best is depends on how one looks at cricket. If someone is a traditionalist and believes test cricket is the ultimate thing and nothing is better than test cricket and if he believes performing overseas is more important than winning ODI titles, even if it was the world cup, then that kind of person will say Sourav Ganguly is the best captain. For an ordinary fan who gives more importance to titles than Test cricket, then Dhoni will eventually look as a better captain for him. It depends on one’s priorities in choosing who the best captain is. I feel Sourav Ganguly is the better Test Captain and Dhoni is better ODI/Twenty20 captain. It would have been ideal if both of them played together for most part of their career and both of them leading India in two different formats (Ganguly in tests and Dhoni in ODI/Twenty20). I feel that would have become the Golden generation of Indian cricket, especially with the amount of talented players we have had during this time.