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 the 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 not give enough credit for his captaincy as well. We only talk about Sourav Ganguly or MS Dhoni and now 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 the most underrated cricketer and probably the most underrated leader as well. We won in England, we won in West Indies and we won 14 or 15 games on the trot. But look at Rahul Dravid as a cricketer,” he added.

“You asked him to open the 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 the 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 the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar all his life, but impact wise probably the same", the 2011 World Cup winner further added.

 

Ganguly & Dravid's captaincy careers

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