MS Dhoni was a better white-ball captain than Sourav Ganguly: Gautam Gambhir

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir reckons that MS Dhoni was a better skipper than Sourav Ganguly in ODI and T20I cricket. Back in 2003, Gambhir made his international debut under Sourav’s leadership and later won the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 50-overs World Cup with Dhoni as the skipper. Gambhir lauded Dhoni for getting his hands on every other ICC trophy.

Dhoni gave up captaincy at the start of 2017, but returned for a solitary game against Afghanistan in the 2018 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Ganguly, on the other hand, took over as India’s skipper when the team was reeling from the jolts of match-fixing scandals.

But then he took India to victory against Australia and guided the Men in Blue to the final of the 2003 World Cup. For Dhoni, who turned 39 on July 7, Gambhir said that it’s tough for one to amass records like how Dhoni did in white-ball cricket.

MS Dhoni has an upper hand, says Gambhir

“MS Dhoni was a better captain than Sourav Ganguly in white-ball cricket, especially if you talk about the trophies alone. T20 World Cup, Champions Trophy, 50-over World Cup – there is nothing else left to win in ICC tournaments as he has won everything,” Gambhir was quoted as saying in Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

“As a captain, obviously you cannot have a better record. So, I have no doubt that in white-ball cricket MS Dhoni has an upper hand over Sourav Ganguly,” Gambhir stated.

Throwing light on the leadership styles of both, Gambhir said that while Ganguly didn’t have experience in his team, Dhoni had the privilege of having match-winners in his armoury.

“When Ganguly took over as captain he had an inexperienced team, players like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Mohammad Kaif were raw. When MS Dhoni took over as captain all these players were world-beaters, so that probably was the reason. MS Dhoni didn’t convert them into players who could handle pressure better,” he added.

As far as captaincy is concerned, Gambhir, himself, has led India in six ODIs, winning all the matches. He also has a couple of titles for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).