Indian Team Is Reaping The Benefits Of Sourav Ganguly's Captaincy - Kamran Akmal

Senior Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal credits Sourav Ganguly and his captaincy for the success Team India has achieved under the likes of MS Dhoni and then Virat Kohli.

Ganguly took over the captaincy in tumultuous times when the team was reeling from the match-fixing scandals. He selected the youngsters such as Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Mohammad Kaif, Virender Sehwag, to support Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, and Javagal Srinath; Ganguly imbued them with character and attitude and the team slowly made progress.

He led India to the 2002 Natwest Trophy and the Champions Trophy, to go with a runner-up finish at the 2003 World Cup.

Then came along MS Dhoni, who took the team to the first rank in Tests, and won the 2011 World Cup; Kohli led the side to Test series win in Australia and continued dominance on the Test ranking. Kamran Akmal reckons it was all possible because Ganguly had the vision to build aside for the future, and the torch was later passed to Dhoni and Kohli.

“If I’d want to play under an India captain but I would certainly want to play against one. I am a huge fan of Sourav Ganguly and his captaincy. Only he had the vision to make an Indian team for the future. The players he brought – Sehwag, Zaheer, Kaif, Dhoni, Yuvraj – they brought India in shape. From there, the Indian team is reaping the benefits.

“See for yourself, it’s still progressing. From there, MS Dhoni took over and now the way Virat Kohli is handling the seat, it’s amazing,” Kamran Akmal said on Sawera Pasha’s YouTube channel.

My wish was always to play against them and I’ve enjoyed it too: Kamran Akmal

Kamran Akmal says that he enjoyed playing against the Indian team, because it was a strong outfit with several superstar batsmen. From opener Sehwag to the strong middle-order of Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly, and the youth of Dhoni.

“My wish was always to play against them and I’ve enjoyed it too. I used to think that Sehwag has opened, now Dravid has to come, Tendulkar has to come, Laxman will bat and Ganguly himself is there.

“Next in line was Dhoni, who used to average 50 – so what do we even do? But still, we had to fight and learn and win. The approach and the captaincy Sourav had has gone a long way in,” he added.

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