Comparisons may be invidious, but when you have an Indian cricket captain doing well, it is no surprise to see him being weighed against the country’s best ever captain. Mahendra Dhoni has been successful as a leader of a young bunch of players, having brought certain freshness by backing his instincts.
He probably matches Sourav Ganguly on that front, but it is still too early to compare him to the Bengal stalwart.
Ganguly wore a heavy crown early in his tenure as captain. The team was still to come to terms with the match-fixing scandal that had shattered many a heart, having not just to win matches but also regain the confidence of people who followed the fortunes of the team.
Ganguly realised early on that he had to back some youngsters and give them the confidence of winning matches. Some like Harbhajan were smashing successes while others like Yuvraj, Zaheer and Kaif promised more than they performed, but the successes were still coming.
Records never give you the true picture and one can’t ignore the fact that there were some easy matches as well.
Under Ganguly, India won 43 per cent of the Tests. However, these included matches against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, without which the figure falls to 30 per cent.
Outside India, he won 11 out of 28 Tests while losing 10. In other words, more than the number of victories, it was the trend of winning outside India that really made Ganguly different.
Leading in both Tests and ODIs with equal firmness, a high point was coming back undefeated from Australia in 2004, he himself setting the tone with a fighting century at Brisbane for a draw.
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