John Buchanan decodes Sourav Ganguly's limitations in the T20 format

Former Australian and Kolkata Knight Riders coach John Buchanan revealed why ex-Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly was not suitable for the T20 format. Even though Ganguly has never played a T20I match for India, he had played IPL for five seasons. Dada had captained the two-time winners Kolkata Knight Riders from 2008-2010. He then represented the now-defunct Pune Warriors in the 2011 and 2012 editions respectively. 

'Certainly not in a formal captaincy role': John Buchanan

“My thinking at the time was, as a captain, you needed to be able to make quick decisions, and your game needed to be suited to the shorter format, and that’s why I had those conversations with Sourav. I just couldn’t believe he was suited to the format of the game and certainly not in a formal captaincy role,” said Buchanan while speaking to Sportstar.

 

Even though Sourav could not become a successful IPL skipper, but he had transformed Indian Cricket completely during his playing days. 

How Ganguly took Indian Cricket to greater heights as a captain

Ganguly 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.

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.

Sourav's captaincy ended in 2005 after his fallout with former Australian cricketer/captain-turned coach Greg Chappell.

(Image Courtesy: AP)