MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly
Veteran Indian wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel feels that former captain Sourav Ganguly made a bigger impact on Indian cricket despite his successor MS Dhoni having the three ICC trophies to back him.
Speaking on Star Sports's Cricket Connected, Parthiv opined that Ganguly took over the captaincy responsibility during a time when Indian cricket was in a turmoil and from there on built a team that would win away matches. Talking about Dhoni, Parthiv could only mention the three ICC trophies that he won - World T20 in 2007, World Cup in 2011 and the Champions Trophy in 2013.
Parthiv said: “The competition is valid between the two captains. One captain has a lot of trophies while the other captain has built the team. When Sourav Ganguly became the captain after 2000, Indian cricket was going through a difficult time.”
He added: “From there he built a team that won abroad, not that we are not winning earlier, but we won big Test matches abroad like Headingly, in Australia and then went to Pakistan and won the Test series.
“If you talk about the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, no one was thinking that the Indian team will reach the final,” he further said.
“If you talk about Dhoni, he has a lot of trophies. He is the only captain who has won so many trophies. In my opinion, if I have to cast my vote it would be for Dada because he built a team from scratch,” Parthiv said.
