Gautam Gambhir says Rahul Dravid was a more impactful captain than Sourav Ganguly

Gautam Gambhir said that Rahul Dravid has been a more impactful captain for India as compared to his good friend Sourav Ganguly. In his 15-year cricketing career from 2003 to 2018, Gambhir has played under many captains including likes of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, etc.

'A fabulous captain': Gautam Gambhir

“I made my ODI debut under Sourav Ganguly, I made my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do t give eugh credit for his captaincy as well. We only talk about Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni and w about Virat Kohli. But Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India,” said Gambhir while interacting on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Connected’.

“Even his records, he is probably most underrated cricketer and probably most underrated leader as well. We won in England, we won in West Indies and we won 14 or 15 games on trot. But look at Rahul Dravid as a cricketer,” he added.

“You asked him to open batting in Test cricket and he did that. He kept wickets for India, he batted as a finisher. He did everything Indian cricket or a captain asked him to do and that is kind of role models you want. For me, I think he has had a bigger impact".  “Sourav Ganguly has always had a bigger impact in white-ball cricket because of his flamboyance but Rahul Dravid overall in Indian cricket had a much bigger impact than probably anyone. You can actually match his impact on someone like Sachin Tendulkar as well. He played under shadow of Sachin Tendulkar all his life, but impact wise probably same", 2011 World Cup winner furr added.

 

Ganguly & Dravid's captaincy careers

Ganguly was handed over captaincy in 2000 when Indian Cricket was in turmoil after that infamous match-fixing scandal broke out that included star cricketers Ajay Jadeja and former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin. Under Dada's captaincy, India had reached finals of ICC Kckout Trophy 2000, won Natwest tri-series in England by beating hosts in final that was led by Nasser Hussain, joint-winners of ICC Champions Trophy 2002 along with Sri Lanka, runners-up in 2003 World Cup, drawing Test series in Australia in 2003/04 and registering a historic ODI as well as Test series win against arch-rivals Pakistan in Pakistan, etc.

Sourav's captaincy ended in 2005 after his fallout with former Australian cricketer/captain-turned coach Greg Chappell.  Dravid who was Ganguly's deputy till that point in time succeeded him in 2005 and captained national team till 2007. Under his tenure, Team India beat Pakistan 4-1 in away ODI series in early 2006, registered ir first-ever Test series win against West Indies on Caribbean soil after a long wait of 35 years, won a Test series in England following year and registered 17 consecutive wins while chasing in One-Day International cricket.