Maninder Singh picks Sourav Ganguly as the best Indian captain over Kapil Dev & MS Dhoni

Maninder Singh said that Sourav Ganguly is the best Indian captain while Kapil Dev and Mahendra Singh Dhoni are on the same page. India had lifted the prized World Cup trophy under Kapil and MS Dhoni's captaincy reigns in 1983 and 2011 respectively while Ganguly had led the Men In Blue to the finals in 2003 where they went down to the then mighty Australia in a lop-sided final.

'Ganguly was a great judge of talent': Maninder Singh

“Dhoni was lucky that Kapil Dev won us the World Cup in 1983 then Dhoni was lucky that before him it was Sourav Ganguly, who made us believe that we can beat any team and in any conditions, so Dhoni got that. When Kapil Dev was the captain that belief was missing. Otherwise, the positivity, the calmness, the captaincy instincts of these two is the same. For me, Kapil and Dhoni are on the same page. If Kapil had somebody else who had won us the World Cup before him, then he could also have been a greater captain,” said the former spinner while speaking to Hindustan Times.

“I loved Ganguly’s captaincy. See what all he has given Indian cricket. He was a great judge of talent. He pulled out Yuvraj from the dumps, he got back Harbhajan Singh when he was dropped,” the commentator-cum-cricket pundit added.

How Sourav Ganguly brought a transformation in Indian Cricket

Ganguly had taken over the reins when the Indian Cricket was in turmoil at the beginning of the new millennium. The southpaw was handed over the captaincy in 2000 when the 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 the finals of ICC Knockout Trophy 2000, won the Natwest tri-series in England by beating the hosts in the final that was led by Nasser Hussain, joint-winners of ICC Champions Trophy 2002 along with Sri Lanka, runners-up in the 2003 World Cup, drawing the 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.

The 'Prince of Kolkata' is one of the best captains in the history of Indian Cricket. Under his captaincy reign that had lasted for half-a-decade, the Indian team had reached greater heights in world cricket and also succeeded in registering many wins overseas especially in red-ball cricket. 'Dada' was also lauded by many experts of that time for his brave captaincy.

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(Image Courtesy: AP)