The Indian National Cricket Team is undoubtedly one of most impactful resources of entertainment in India. We Indians do not see cricket as a sport. It is like a part of life for us. The same way all those players who represent the Indian Cricket Team are like our extended family. That virtual engagement creates additional pressure and adds a sense of responsibility within the players. That is why captaining India is not an easy task. But we do have some leaders who not only got success as a captain but also showed the right direction to Indian Cricket.
The parameters that have been considered for selecting the top 5 entries for the most successful captains are listed below according to their priorities -
- Ability to manage his team on the field
- Winning rate of India under their captaincy
- Total number of ICC (International Cricket Council) trophy won
- Number of matches as a captain
- The situation they took over the captaincy
So, without any further ado, let's get into the topic starting from our fifth entry to the list.
Virat Kohli
When MS Dhoni announced his retirement from test format in 2014 it came as a shock for his fans. He has created us such an aura around him that his fans are not ready to accept anyone as the captain of India. It was a challenge for Virat Kohli to fill the space that Dhoni created. But needless to say that he has made his presence felt with his captaincy.
The U-19 Team captain
Virat's journey as a captain in the International level is started from the U-19 world cup. He was the captain of team India for the U-19 world cup, 2008. That year India went on to win the World cup for the 2nd time under his leadership. He scored 235 runs in that tournament. He was the top run-scorer for India. In the semi-final, he scored 43 runs and took 2 crucial wickets that helped India win that match. From there on there was no look back.
Journey as captain of the National Cricket Team
Till 2016 Virat was the captain of the Indian Test side. He was elected as the captain of all three formats during the tour of England in India in 2016-2017. Virat Kohli and Aggression both are synonymous. His aggressive approach is reflected in his captaincy as well. That is why he is criticized often but this is also true it has also helped India to win matches.
Till date, Virat has captained in 55 test matches. India won 33 matches out of those 55 tests. In ODIs India has won 62 matches out of 89 matches that he captained. The winning percentage of the Indian team in ODIs is 71.83% under his captaincy. It is the highest among all those Indian captains who captained at least for 20 matches. India was victorious in 22 T20Is out of 37 matches with a winning percentage of 65.71% under his captaincy. Another milestone in his captaincy career is that he made team India No.1 Test side & No. 1 ODI side in ICC rankings. Currently, India is still No.1 Test-playing nation and India is at No. 2 in ODI rankings.
Captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)
His performance in under 19 world cup was sufficient enough for an IPL contract. In the first edition of the IPL, he got a chance to play for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). Since then he has been playing for RCB only. He has been elected as the captain of the franchise in 2013. Unfortunately, his record as a The captain of RCB does not match with his character. Despite having explosive batsmen on the top of the order, RCB has failed to win a single title. RCB's best performance under Virat's captaincy was in 2016. Virat has taken his team to the finals, single-handedly. But RCB lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. So till now, Virat's ability to win an IPL title is still under test.
Trophies and important series wins
When it comes to trophies, Kohli is not a lucky man. He is yet to win an ICC trophy. He has been very close win an ICC trophy when India reached the final of the ICC Champions trophy 2017. But in the finals Pakistan defeated India. In 2019 ICC men's world cup India was defeated in the semi-final match against New Zealand. His biggest achievement as the captain must be the Test series win against Australia, in Australia.
But winning trophies is not everything. The crystal clear fact is that Virat is India's one of the successful captains as per the statistics. A captain should have an impact on his team and the game and he has successfully done that.
Mohammad Azharuddin
If
you talk about a dream debut at International level then nothing is better than getting a century in your very first match. But getting 3
centuries in a row! it is next to impossible. It does not apply to
Mohammad Azharuddin though. Because he is the one and only cricketer who holds the record of scoring 3 consecutive centuries in his first 3 international matches. His unique style of batting, elegant stroke-play and his use of wrist impressed cricket followers around the globe. It was a visual treat to watch him field on the ground. He was a special talent and that reflected on his captaincy too.
Azhar's career as a Captain
Azhar
was appointed as the captain of team India after the tour of Pakistan in the year 1989. He made his captaincy debut in test in the year 1990
when India played a test series against New Zealand in New Zealand.
Rothmans Cup Triangular series, 1989 was Azhar's first ODI match as captain. He served the national team as captain for nearly 10 years.
He captained the Indian National Cricket team in 47 test matches and
174 ODI matches. Under his captaincy, India won 14 test matches and 90
ODIs with a winning percentage of 53.57%. He led team India in 3 world
cups (1992,1996 & 1999). In 1996 Azhar led India to the semi-finals
where the team lost against Srilanka. Under his captaincy, India has lost many finals of ODI series. Otherwise, his graph as a captain could have been more attractive.
In
2000 he was banned by BCCI for life after his name got involved with a
Match-fixing scandal. Despite all these, his contribution as a captain can not be neglected. He will always be remembered as one of the finest batsman on the leg side courtesy of his flexible wrists. To celebrate his journey, famous cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle wrote a book on him, titled "Azhar".
Kapil Dev
Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj is the name of the revolution in Indian Cricket. Before his arrival, the Indian bowling attack was over-dependent on the spinners. The hunt for a world-class pace bowler ended when Kapil debuted in 1978 against Pakistan. Though his expertise was pace bowling he took no time to establish himself as an all-rounder. He is one of those pioneers to introduce fitness into cricket. That is the reason he did not miss a single game due to injury. His fitness helped him to be a reliable fielder as well. He was part of 131 Tests and 225 ODIs in his 16-year long career. He is the most successful all-rounders of all times with 5248 runs and 434 wickets in Tests & 3783 runs and 253 wickets in ODIs.
International Career as Captain
During the Sri Lanka tour Of India in 1982-83 season, Sunil Gavaskar (captain at that time) was rested in the ODI series. That opened the gate for Kapil Dev as BCCI wanted to invest on a potential youngster. The tour of West Indies in 1983 was his first tour as the regular captain of team India. There, his team managed to win one of the two ODI matches. That victory boosted their confidence in the upcoming 1983 Cricket World Cup.
The world cup story
India's record at the previous two world cups was below average. They were eliminated from the tournament in the group stages. So there was no expectation from this team. The players also had very little expectation from themselves. But it was the indomitable will of Kapil dev that united the team and made them give their hundred per cent on the field. In their first match, India defeated West Indies. From there on the team started believing that they also can win the tournament. India defeated Zimbabwe in the next match. But with consecutive losses against Australia and West Indies in the next two matches, India was about to be out of the tournament.
Next two matches against Zimbabwe and Australia were must-win games to qualify for knockout stages. But the game against Zimbabwe was not going in favour of the Indian team. They lost five wickets in quick succession. Kapil came to bat when India was 17/5. After 50 overs the score was 266/8. Kapil played an unbelievable knock of 175* (158) with the help of 16 boundaries and 6 over-boundaries. He destroyed the Zimbabwe bowling line-up. India won that match courtesy of Kapil's performance. In the next match, team India defeated Australia and cemented their spot in semi-finals. India was playing the host, England in the semi-final match. England kept on losing wickets within short intervals and managed to score 213 runs. Team India overcame this challenge quite easily and finished the game in 54.4 overs.
The unforgettable final against West Indies
Nobody expected team India to reach the finals. Their final match was with the defending champions, West Indies. India lost the toss and asked to bat first on a green top wicket. The team managed to score only 183. Indian batting line up collapsed in front of West Indies bowling attack. 183 runs were very hard to defend especially when the opponent has batsmen like Sir Vivian Richard, Gordon Greenidge, Sir Clive Lloyd etc. It was evident that the Indian team will fight and do everything possible to win the World cup. Indian bowlers kept on taking wickets and did to allow any partnerships.
Sir Vivian Richard was the greatest threat to the bowlers. He was scoring runs quickly. He got out on 33 courtesy of a brilliant catch by none other than Kapil Dev. Viv tried to pull a back of good length delivery bowled by Madan Lal and mistimed it. Kapil ran backwards and took the catch with ease. After that none of the West Indian batsmen could stay in the crease for long and they were all out for 140 runs. India won the match and most importantly the 1983 Cricket World Cup.
That win changed Indian cricket forever. That world cup win seeded the dream of becoming a cricketer inside millions of youth. Indian cricketers became household names. That win changed the structure of Indian cricket, thanks to Kapil and his team.
After the post World Cup India tour of West Indies, Kapil was removed from captaincy due to bad performance of team India. Gavaskar was reappointed as captain. For the next few years, Kapil and Gavaskar were made captain for several times. In 1987 Cricket World Cup Kapil again captained team India. the team lost against England in the semi-final match. After that tournament the did not captain India again.
Sourav Ganguly
This list would have been incomplete without Sourav Chandidas Ganguly. He has to be the most influential captain if not the greatest Indian captain of all times. Sourav has injected a new attitude into the Indian team. He added the fearless factor in the team. He made everyone believe that India can win the overseas tours as well. At least they will fight for their victory. This attitude has changed the thought process of Indian cricket. Sourav Ganguly had brought a new brand of cricket which has been followed till now. That is why Indian Cricket owes to Sourav Ganguly a lot.
Journey of Sourav Ganguly as the captain of Team India
After Azhar's ban from International cricket, the captaincy was handed
over to Sourav Ganguly after
Sachin's refusal. The situation when he started his captaincy was
not very great. The match-fixing scandal was one of the most
talked-about issues of that time. He became full-time captain of the
Indian team in the year 2000. Handing over the captaincy to Sourav
Ganguly can be considered as one of the defining moments in Indian
cricket history. Under his captaincy, the Indian team developed a
fighting spirit of winning matches overseas. Ganguly has captained India
in 49 test matches, winning 21 out of them. He led India in 146 ODI
matches and won 76 matches with a winning percentage of 53.9%.
Making of New Indian Cricket Team
Ganguly was the pioneer of that Indian team what we see today. He had
built a well-balanced team of experienced and youths who complemented
each other. On one hand, he had the experience of cricketers like Sachin
Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble. On the other hand, he
picked up some youth talents from the domestic level like Yuvraj Singh,
Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Mohammad Kaif, Ashish Nehra, Virender
Sehwag, MS Dhoni etc. The combination was so deadly that this team
troubled the world's best teams of that time in their soil.
Ganguly's IPL career
Similar to Kohli, Ganguly's IPL career has nothing to talk about. There was a hype when Sourav was elected as the captain of Kolkata Knight
Riders (KKR) for the first season. The performance that KKR put in the first
match was very promising. But with time their performance graph came
down rapidly. The poor performance of KKR forced the management to
replace him with Brendon McCullum in the 2009 edition of IPL. But the
fate did not change. So in 2010, Ganguly was again appointed as the
captain but this attempt also failed. He then played for Pune Worriers
India as a replacement of Ashish Nehra in 2011. He was declared the
captain of the squad for the 2012 edition of IPL. He never succeeded as a
captain in IPL though his performance was moderately good.
Achievements
During his captaincy period, India won the ICC Champions Trophy (shared
with Sri Lanka) in 2002. In 2003 world cup India lost the final against
Australia. One important chapter in Ganguly's captaincy career is
winning the Natwest trophy in 2002. Sourav Ganguly, waving his shirt at
Lord's balcony after winning that final is an iconic moment in cricket
history. That picture will remain close to the heart of supporters of
Indian cricket.
Currently, Sourav Ganguly is serving as the BCCI president from 23rd
October, 2019. The situation of his debut as the president of BCCI was
similar to that of his debut as captain of team India. In recent times
BCCI was going through an administrative turmoil. Since his election, he
has taken some brave decisions for the betterment of Indian cricket.
Initiating the first Day-Night test match in India with the pink ball is
one example of his work. He will certainly leave his impact on the game
with his job as president.
MS Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is undoubtedly India's most successful captain in terms of the number of trophies won. He was known for his aggressive batting during his initial days. He debuted in 2004 against Bangladesh as a wicket-keeper batsman. Though his international career started with a duck but he took no time to prove his calibre. He scored his first century in his fourth match against Pakistan in April 2005. Since then, he has scored 10 ODI centuries and 6 Test centuries. Till now he has played 350 ODI matches and 98 T20I matches for the nation. He has taken retirement from Test format in 2014. In Test matches, he scored a total of 4876 runs in 98 matches. He has scored 10773 runs and 1617 runs in ODIs and T20Is respectively till now.
Records as Captain of Indian National Cricket Team
Sourav Ganguly seeded the dream of being the best cricket playing nation inside millions of cricket lovers in India. But under Dhoni's captaincy, that dream came into reality. As far as winning trophies are concerned, the Indian team has reached the peak of success when Dhoni captained India. Dhoni was in the team since 2004 and made his name as a finisher of the game. In 2007, ICC announced the inaugural World Twenty20. At that time T20 was very new to India. So, stalwarts of Indian cricket refused to play the Twenty20 format. So BCCI handed the captaincy over to Dhoni for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20.
The journey started with that tournament only. Soon he was declared the captain of the ODI team in September 2007. He became the captain of all three formats in the last test against Australia in November 2008. He has captained India in 60 tests, 200 ODIs and 72 T20Is. Out of 60 test match that he captained India won 27 tests. He had the record of most test victories for India surpassing Ganguly's 21 test victories. Recently Virat has broken this record by winning 29 tests as captain. He led India to 110 ODI victories and 41 T20I victories with the winning percentage of 59.4%. India climbed to the No.1 position in ICC test ranking for the first time in 2009 under his captaincy. India was also on the top of ODI rankings for almost 12 months during Dhoni's captaincy period. But all of these records get covered in front of the ICC trophies.
2007 ICC World Twenty20
India had flown to South Africa for the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 with a bunch of new players. That team had very little exposure to international cricket. On the top of that Dhoni had no previous experiences of captaining India. India had not played many T20I matches till then. Indian team had to struggle for the first few matches in the league stage. They won their first match against Pakistan in a bowl-out. The main highlight of the world cup was the match against England. It is that match where Yuvraj Singh hit 6 Sixes in an over against Stuart Broad. From there on the team kept on winning the matches and reached the finals.
In the final, India faced Pakistan. Batting first, India set a target of 158 runs courtesy of an outstanding inning by Gautam Gambhir of 75 runs. Pakistan was going well and needed 13 runs off the last over. Misbah-ul-Haq was batting exceptionally well in that match and was on strike. Dhoni played a gamble and gave that last over to Joginder Sharma. It worked in favour of team India & the team snatched the victory from Pakistan in a nail-biting match.
2011 ICC Cricket World Cup
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. It had been 28 years since the Indian team had won the World cup. As the hosts there was as additional pressure of winning the tournament. There were other factors too. It was Sachin's 6th and the last World cup. The team wanted to win the trophy for him. With all these extra loads with the pressure of the World Cup, Indian Team started their journey against Bangladesh. The league stage was quite easy to qualify for the knockout matches. In the quarter-final, India faced the defending champions, Australia. India surpassed that threat courtesy of the all-round performance by Yuvraj Singh. The next opponent of the Indian team was the arch-rival Pakistan. A semi-final of world cup can not be more intense than that. But Pakistan failed to offer than expected competition. Team India won the match comfortably.
April 2, 2011, it was the day of that big final between two nations of the sub-continent. Sri Lanka defeated New Zealand in semi-finals and had the potential to win that trophy also. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first. They scored 274 runs, thanks to the century of Jayawardene. Though the score was not too big but the pressure of the final made the chase difficult. A good partnership was needed to reach 274 runs. Gambhir took this responsibility and made partnerships, first with Kohli and then Dhoni. His 97 runs were very crucial in that run chase. But Dhoni's knock of 91* was unbelievable. He finished the game with an iconic six. After 28 years India was again World champions.
2013 ICC Champions Trophy
2013 ICC Champions trophy is a very important chapter in Indian cricket. From this tournament, India found a very powerful opening pair in Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. The Indian Team's fielding was exceptional throughout the tournament. Most importantly MS Dhoni won his 3rd ICC trophy. Doing that he became the first captain to win all 3 ICC limited-overs trophies.
the 2013 edition of the Champions Trophy was hosted by England. But team India adapted with the English conditions so well that Indian team remained undefeated throughout that tournament. It is indeed a crazy fact. The opening pair scored runs in almost every game, fielding was of high standard, the bowlers bowled well. Team India ticked every checkbox to be considered as the potential candidate to win that trophy. The journey up to the final match was very smooth.
In the big final, India faced the host, England in a rain-interrupted match. The rain forced the match to be reduced to 20 overs. England won the Crucial toss and elected to bowl first. In 20 overs team, India managed to score 130 runs only. The run may not be a big score but it was certainly a fighting total. Though India managed to get early breakthroughs, but the pair of Ravi Bopara and Eion Morgan built a good partnership. The pair were scoring runs quickly and took the grip of the match. In the 18th over Dhoni handed the ball over to Ishant Sharma. Till then, that match was not going well for him. But in that over he got the wickets of Bopara and Morgan both. In that one over, the match went in favour of India and eventually won the ICC Champions Trophy.
Dhoni's IPL career
Besides his international career, he is quite successful as the caption of Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as well. He is just one title short of Rohit Sharma who has won 4 titles as the captain Mumbai Indians (MI). Dhoni is captaining CSK from the first edition of the IPL. CSK is considered as the most successful team in the history of IPL. CSK featured in 10 IPL editions and qualified all the 10 times for the playoffs. The team featured in 8 finals and ended up winning the title 3 times.In 2010, CSK won their first title defeating MI in the final. In 2011, the team defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and became the first team to retain the title. In the next few seasons, though they made to the playoffs, but failed to win the title again.
2016 and 2017 must be the toughest years for CSK fans. The team was suspended from the league for two years due to the illegal betting and match-fixing scandal of their officials. In 2016 MS Dhoni captained the new team Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS,) but they could not do well in IPL. So in the next season, Dhoni was dropped from captaincy. That was the only season in IPL when Dhoni did not captain his side.
2018 was the year of CSK's royal comeback. Fans were eagerly waiting for their "Thala" to play in that yellow jersey again. The team also wanted to win that IPL for their fans and they did so. Under Dhoni's captaincy, CSK won the title for the 3rd time defeating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). This title should be the most emotional one among those three title wins. In 2019 they again made to playoffs but lost to MI just by 1 run in the final match.
Achievements
The achievement list of MS Dhoni as the Indian team captain is somewhat more than someone could have asked for. He is the captain of the inaugural ICC World TWenty20 winning team. He brought back the ICC Cricket World Cup to India after long 28 years. He has won 2013 ICC Champions trophy domination each and every opponent. He is two times Asia Cup winner. He once had the record of most Test match wins as the captain of India. His match-winning percentage is second-best among all the players who captained India in at least 50 matches.
MS Dhoni has been India's most precious asset in the last 10 years. He led his team to victory with his calm and witty body-language in high-pressure situations. It has been seen that players performance graph takes a steep rise under his captaincy. He knows how to bring the best out of someone. He has been last seen on the field during the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. His fans are eagerly waiting for his comeback.
Md.Azharuddin er scandal er pore India team ke rebuild kore sourav Ganguly. Undoubtedly the bravest captain of Indian cricket history.
ReplyDeleteEkmatro captain je steve waugh ke toss er jonno wait koriye rekhechilo. Overseas success theke suru kore Lords er balcony..
Dada r decision gulor moddhe sobcheye kharap decision hoyto Greg chappel ke coach kore ana, nahole dadar career aro boro hoto.
R ha according to "M.S.Dhoni the untold story" movie, Sourav e prothom Dhoni ke chance diyechilo national team e..nd most probably thats the biggest masterstroke in indian cricket history.
Another excellent blog.. Thanks for this.
ReplyDeleteWaiting for your next..