Former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag minced no words when he was asked to make a comparison between two of India’s greatest captains – Virat Kohli and Sourav Ganguly.
Speaking on Sports 18’s show Home of Heroes, Sehwag made it clear that in his view, Ganguly was a greater skipper than Kohli, despite the latter’s stats of leading India to most Test wins, including series wins in Australia and England.
Virender Sehwag explained that Ganguly not only forged a team mostly out of young and inexperienced players but also gave them strong backing through their lows; he reckoned Kohli, on the other hand, was guilty of not giving a longer rope to his players and was prompt in dropping players after a few failures.
“Sourav Ganguly built a new team, brought in new players and backed them through their highs and lows. I doubt if Kohli did that in his tenure,” Sehwag opined.
“In my opinion, the #1 captain is the one who builds a team and gives confidence to his players. He (Kohli) backed some players, some he did not,” he added.
Earlier in the year, Virat Kohli had stepped down as India’s Test captain, a day after the series loss in South Africa, announcing the news on his social media platforms and shocking the fans.
The Delhi-born cricketer had taken over full-time Test captaincy from MS Dhoni in early 2015 and went on to become India’s most successful Test captain by a big gap. He led the nation in 68 Tests, winnings 40 of those – the fourth-most number of wins for any Test captain in the world – losing 17 and drawing 11. Among Indians, next on the list are Dhoni (27 wins from 60 matches) and Sourav Ganguly (21 wins out of 49).
Of those 40 victories, 16 came overseas, including series triumphs in Sri Lanka (2-1) in 2015, West Indies (2-0) in 2016, Sri Lanka (3-0) in 2017, Australia (2-1) in 2018-19 and West Indies (2-0) in 2019, before India reached the inaugural WTC final; the Asian giants also lead the unfinished series in England by 2-1, with the fifth Test to be played later this year.
Virat Kohli took the team when it was in the doldrums languishing at number 7 and propelled it to the number 1 ranking.
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