India's greatest test cricket captain: Ganguly vs Dhoni

[Trichromatic]

Was India ever ranked top 3 sides in test/odi under Ganguly's captaincy ?

2004-05

[Crookbond]

Laxman was forced to open before he took over and was used used as a floater so many times. Sehwag was brought by him and he made him open, call it luck or whatever it worked. Dravid played at no. 3 most of the times Only place where he could play Yuvraj was opening spot. So how he changed their batting orders. lol :haha:

FYI - Laxman refused to open in 2001. It was not Ganguly who gave him that "luxury".

[maniac]

India was No 3 from Nov 2003 till July 2005....Ganguly took them from 6 to 3....Never had a decline at the level of 1 to 5 btw

[vvvslaxman]

Now Laxman and Dravid are done with. Sachin is the only lone left. He is not exactly the best batsman even among Indian side now. Two poor openers. Aging Zak. Can't be worse than this. Let us see how Dhoni handles from here on. A real test as a captain.

[maniac]

They were consistent at No 3 till around Dec 2005 they became No 2 and eventually No 1 in a few years....Do people still doubt Ganguly's foundation? Also I see a few posts about Ganguly's behavior....who cares if he is a douche in his personal life as long as he contributed to the turnaround of Indian cricket

[Number]

FYI - Laxman refused to open in 2001. It was not Ganguly who gave him that "luxury".

It was in 2000 SA home series where it was reported he refused to open and he was dropped in the second test. SRT was captain then.

[maniac]

http://www.icc-cricket.com/match_zone/team_ranking_search_submit.php

[Crookbond]

It was in 2000 SA home series where it was reported he refused to open and he was dropped in the second test. SRT was captain then.

Yes - My point was Ganguly dis not bestow any luxury on Laxman. He even dropped him from the WC 2003 squad.

[Number]

Yes - My point was Ganguly dis not bestow any luxury on Laxman. He even dropped him from the WC 2003 squad.

Yes, Ganguly shouldn't be credited for that. VVS earned middle order position by himself. After getting dropped he scored so many runs in the domestic games that selectors had to consider him.

[ravishingravi]

I would have chosen Dravid for his overseas record in tests. India did well under him. But to be honest Ganguly had probably the greatest impact on Indian cricket and laid the foundations both in terms of players and attitude for Indian cricketers to follow. Dhoni and Dravid essentially fed off the team he built.

[vvvslaxman]

Lot of the "tough minded" attitude we gloat about Ganguly was basically his egoistic nature. It actually promoted his image. It didn't actually improve the performance of players. I greatly respect John wright to bring in fresh perspective.He himself has told several times it was not easy to work with him. Infact he favored to sack Ganguly as well.

[maniac]

Lot of the "tough minded" attitude we gloat about Ganguly was basically his egoistic nature. It actually promoted his image. It didn't actually improve the performance of players. I greatly respect John wright to bring in fresh perspective.He himself has told several times it was not easy to work with him. Infact he favored to sack Ganguly as well.

John Wright definetely deserves the credit....but for eg;Look at Dav Whatmore...Lot of people have high regard from him as a coach but his dynamic was different with someone like Arjuna compared to say Misbah(I know too short of a tenure to judge)....John Wright did not have a good stint recently with NZL.....So there must be some dynamic there that caught on between Gangs and Wright

[BeautifulGame]

John Wright definetely deserves the credit....but for eg;Look at Dav Whatmore...Lot of people have high regard from him as a coach but his dynamic was different with someone like Arjuna compared to say Misbah(I know too short of a tenure to judge)....John Wright did not have a good stint recently with NZL.....So there must be some dynamic there that caught on between Gangs and Wright

John Wright definitely had a good stint with New zealand.Reached the semi final of world cup in sub continent and won the hobart test and drew the series in Aus for the first time in ages. He only because he couldnt work under Buchanan and NZL board due to differences with them.Prep camp before WI tour for ex.

[adi B]

Yes Dhoni's side screwed up big time with three players in their twilight of their career. You think Ganguly had to deal with IPL distraction? Imagine such a scenario for Ganguly.

in that case while dada was the captain,there were no odi beasts like raina,dhoni,kohli..even yuvi wasnt that great + there were no powerplays,ipl was not introduced nor t20`s so batsmen didnt use to blast like these years..odi`s have changed a lot from ganguly`s time to dhoni`s time.. while msd is a good odi captain,this team is far superior than the one durin 2000-05

[Trichromatic]

in that case while dada was the captain,there were no odi beasts like raina,dhoni,kohli..even yuvi wasnt that great + there were no powerplays,ipl was not introduced nor t20`s so batsmen didnt use to blast like these years..odi`s have changed a lot from ganguly`s time to dhoni`s time.. while msd is a good odi captain,this team is far superior than the one durin 2000-05

Although India didn't have beasts, with decent bowlers (much better than what current team has) and in form Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj team managed to lose most of the finals. Sure Indian batting is far superior now, but players were not that bad to have team at bottom in ODIs.

[adi B]

Although India didn't have beasts' date=' with decent bowlers (much better than what current team has) and in form Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid, Yuvraj team managed to lose most of the finals. Sure Indian [i']batting is far superior now, but players were not that bad to have team at bottom in ODIs.

agree but many of the finals were against aus..they were head and shoulders above all the teams.. he did have to deal with opener problems,had to deal with idiots like badani,bangar,amay khurasia,ss das ,ratra,das gupta lol..that was a transition period.we got a decent odi team after 2002

[Mariyam]

I would have chosen Dravid for his overseas record in tests. India did well under him. But to be honest Ganguly had probably the greatest impact on Indian cricket and laid the foundations both in terms of players and attitude for Indian cricketers to follow. Dhoni and Dravid essentially fed off the team he built.

Don't agree with the part in bold. Ganguly had nothing to do with changing attitudes of people. Its just that the internet generation ( which includes me and you) are much more confrontational and in your face than the previous generations. And we celebrate characters like Kohli .I'm not talking about celebrating his exemplary batting, which is truly celebration worthy, but the celebrations when he mouths off anybody - from the umpire, to opposing players to the wall in the dressing room. This brashness has its uses; evidently it has helped us in cricket. But in some fields it ( mostly academic and professional) such an attitude can be a bane. All I'm saying is that its a general behavioral shift not as much a change Ganguly bought about. If Ganguly was the captain in the mid to late 80s, I'm sure Sachin and Jadeja and the others of that era wouldn't turn out to be excessively 'aggressive' as the youngsters of today.

[Trichromatic]

he did have to deal with opener problems,had to deal with idiots like badani,bangar,amay khurasia,ss das ,ratra,das gupta lol..that was a transition period.we got a decent odi team after 2002

Opener problem in ODIs during Ganguly's time? What are you talking about? We had Ganguly and Tendulkar and later Sehwag. That was best opening pair from late 90s to early 2000s.

agree but many of the finals were against aus..they were head and shoulders above all the teams..

Only 3 finals. We lost against SA, NZ, SL, WI, SL, SA, Aus, Aus, SL, SL in same order. Only Pakistan (couldn't reach final in 2000 tri-series), England (failed to win bilateral series against them at home), Zimbabwe (somehow managed to save home series against them, thanks to Yuvi and Badani), Kenya, Bangladesh are the teams against which we didn't lose finals. You're trying to sound as if we were second best team in the world and lost because aussies were too strong.

[Crookbond]

Ganguly's ODI record as captain is poor and tends to get masked due to India reaching the finals of the 2003 WC.

[Trichromatic]

Ganguly's ODI record as captain is poor and tends to get masked due to India reaching the finals of the 2003 WC.

Even before WC confidence of the team was down. Out batsmen were horribly out of form and it was reflected in first 2 matches. ODI batting line-up consisting of Sehwag, SRT, Yuvi, Ganguly, Dravid couldn't play 50 overs for 10 consecutive matches and lost home series against WI 4-3, away series against NZ 5-2 with later being one of the worst series for Ganguly as captain.