MS Dhoni is arguably the greatest India captain of all time. He led India to victory in the 2007 T20 world Cup, 2011 world cup and 2013 champions trophy. Former India coach Lalchand Rajput believes that Dhoni was a perfect mixture of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.
Dhoni became captain of India at the time when men in blue where knocked out of the group stage in 2007 world cup under Rahul Dravid. In the absence of senior players, Dhoni was named captain in the inaugural T20 world cup and led India to glory.
Dhoni mixture of Dravid and Ganguly – Lalchand Rajput
Lalchand Rajput lauded the captaincy of Dhoni and acknowledged that he was always two steps ahead of the opposition. He was very cool and thinking captain that took forward the legacy of Sourav Ganguly. Both Dhoni and Ganguly gave confidence to young players and backed them completely once they believed in their abilities.
“To be very honest Dhoni was very very calm and used to think two steps ahead of the opponent and he was always a thinking captain. He was a mixture of Ganguly and Rahul Dravid. Ganguly used to give players the confidence and he was the one who changed the mentality of the Indian team”.
“So, I think that carried forward with Dhoni because even he gave opportunities to players and if he saw potential in someone he used to give him ample opportunities. Dhoni will never show any evasive action on the ground and that helped the players in giving their best”, Rajput was quoted as saying to Sportskeeda.
Sourav Ganguly changed the landscape of Indian cricket completely once he took the reigns of captaincy in 2000. He made a core group of players that played for a very long time for team India. Ganguly also led India in 2003 world cup in South Africa in which the team reached the final.
Rahul Dravid, on the other hand, was a successful Test captain. Under his leadership, India won the Test series in England. His ODI captaincy record but also decent barring the shocking losses in the 2007 world cup in West Indies. Team India lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in the group stage as their campaign came to an end.