In lauding Dhoni, let’s not forget Ganguly’s role !

Mahendra Singh Dhoni is considered the best captain India ever had. And he truly deserves that rating, looking at his track record. He has the highest win percentage ever with 61.72%. He has always led the team from the front by being exemplary. He has continued the trend started by Sourav Ganguly of winning outside India and shows confidence in his young players. He has proved that Indian team is capable of winning without the big guns like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.

He handpicked young players and proved that quality international cricketers can be found outside the traditional stronghold like Mumbai and Delhi. It was under Ganguly that India found players but also from smaller centres like Ranchi, Meerut, Najafgarh etc.

Under his leadership, India has won the inaugural ICC T20 World Championship. He powered India to the No.1 rankings in both Test and ODI’s – unparalleled in the history of Indian cricket.

Statistically, Dhoni is the best Indian captain ever. But as they say, stats don’t tell you the full story. This is true when we compare Sourav Ganguly and Dhoni. The former has a winning percentage of 53.9, which is less than Dhoni.

If we look back when Ganguly took over the reins of the team, Indian cricket was in a big mess because of the match-fixing scandals. The great Tendulkar had stepped down and no one wanted to lead India. It is at this moment of crisis that Ganguly stepped in and took control of the reins.

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