Gautam Gambhir faces backlash from fans for choosing Sourav Ganguly over MS Dhoni

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir recently participated in an online poll conducted by ESPNCricinfo where he was asked to pick his favourite captain between Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni. 38-year-old picked Sourav Ganguly over veteran wicketkeeper-batsman as a better captain, thus invoking some scathing reactions from fans on social media. Ganguly had taken over reins when Indian cricket was in turmoil at beginning of new millennium and MS Dhoni took it to greater heights a few years later as Team India won all major titles under his captaincy.

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Gautam Gambhir’s pick as best Team India captain invokes anger from fans

Gautam Gambhir said he picked Sourav Ganguly because 113-Test veteran created a legacy of match-winning cricketers for his successors. He named Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag as some of cricketers who made ir debuts under Sourav Ganguly and went on to become “world-beaters”. Speaking about MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir said that legendary wicketkeeper did t give eugh quality players to his successor Virat Kohli apart from Kohli himself, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.

MS Dhoni fans were far from pleased with Gambhir’s recent statements over ir ‘favourite’ captain. y took to social media to express ir anguish with some reminding him of his improved batting record under MS Dhoni. Here is a look at some fan reactions that came to fore due to Gautam Gambhir’s take on MS Dhoni vs Ganguly.

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Gautam Gambhir made his international debut in 2003 under leadership of Sourav Ganguly. In a decorated 13-year journey with Indian cricket, left-hander played 58 Tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is and was part of 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup-winning sides. Interestingly, Gautam Gambhir’s twin World Cup success came under captaincy of MS Dhoni.

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Team India captain: MS Dhoni vs Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly was handed over captaincy in 2000. During his tenure, India reached finals of ICC Kckout Trophy 2000, won 2002 Natwest tri-series in England, shared 2002 ICC Champions Trophy hours with Sri Lanka, were runners-up in 2003 World Cup, and drew 2003-04 Test series in Australia. Additionally, India also registered ODI and Test series wins against arch-rivals Pakistan away from home in 2004.

On or hand, MS Dhoni is widely regarded as one of best captains in world. He is only skipper to win all ICC events (World T20 2007, ICC Test mace in 2009, 2011 World Cup, and 2013 Champions Trophy). He has also led Men in Blue to two Asia Cup titles in 2010 and 2016 respectively. MS Dhoni relinquished his Test captaincy in December 2014 after end of Boxing Day match against Australia. He later called it a day on his limited-overs captaincy in January 2017 and passed on baton of Indian cricket to his n-deputy Virat Kohli.

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Im credit: PTI and BCCI Twitter