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. The 38-year-old picked Sourav Ganguly over the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman as a better captain, thus invoking some scathing reactions from fans on social media. Ganguly had taken over the reins when Indian cricket was in turmoil at the beginning of the 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 the 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 the cricketers who made their debuts under Sourav Ganguly and went on to become “world-beaters”. Speaking about MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir said that the legendary wicketkeeper did not give enough 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 their ‘favourite’ captain. They took to social media to express their anguish with some reminding him of his improved batting record under MS Dhoni. Here is a look at some fan reactions that came to the 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 the leadership of Sourav Ganguly. In a decorated 13-year journey with Indian cricket, the left-hander played 58 Tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is and was part of the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup-winning sides. Interestingly, Gautam Gambhir’s twin World Cup success came under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.

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Team India captain: MS Dhoni vs Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly was handed over the captaincy in 2000. During his tenure, India reached the finals of the ICC Knockout Trophy 2000, won the 2002 Natwest tri-series in England, shared 2002 ICC Champions Trophy honours with Sri Lanka, were runners-up in the 2003 World Cup, and drew the 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 the other hand, MS Dhoni is widely regarded as one of the best captains in the world. He is the 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 the Men in Blue to two Asia Cup titles in 2010 and 2016 respectively. MS Dhoni relinquished his Test captaincy in December 2014 after the end of the Boxing Day match against Australia. He later called it a day on his limited-overs captaincy in January 2017 and passed on the baton of Indian cricket to his then-deputy Virat Kohli.

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Image credit: PTI and BCCI Twitter