Comparing Sourav Ganguly's Team XI and MS Dhoni's Team XI

It’s often been said that Sourav Ganguly was able to build the Indian team which later was well utilized by MS Dhoni. However, it doesn’t take away the good work done by the latter.

In fact, both Ganguly and Dhoni are two of the best Indian captains. Both of them led with aplomb and got the best of their players. They were known to back their players to the hilt.

Thus, India scaled great heights under the leadership of both these skippers.

Comparison between the team of Sourav Ganguly XI and MS Dhoni XI:

Sourav Ganguly led the most potent Indian batting line-up. In fact, he was part of the middle-order that gave nightmares to the world-class bowlers. The likes of Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman were the force to reckon with.

Ganguly led the greatest batting line-up of the Indian cricket. However, if there was a chink in the armour in his team, it was a support to Zaheer Khan in the pace bowling battery.

Players like Ashish Nehra, S Sreesanth showed the promise but could not hang around longer.

Furthermore, the experience of bowling line-up helped Ganguly’s team in reaching new heights. Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh will go down as India’s best spinners. Moreover, Zaheer Khan also delivered the goods for the Prince of Kolkata.

Thus, Ganguly was the Director who made actors like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan into big rockstars.

Therefore, he was instrumental in polishing and backing these players. Ganguly gave them an ample amount of opportunities. He ensured them if they keep acting well, they will keep getting more films.

Thus, Sourav Ganguly’s side started to gain confidence under his leadership. They had the belief that they can savour success while playing in foreign conditions.

MS Dhoni Team XI:

On the other hand, MS Dhoni was given the reins of captaincy in his young days of International cricket. He had the ability to think two steps ahead in the game. Thus, the wicketkeeper-batsman had the ability to read the game.

Dhoni was instrumental in promoting Rohit Sharma up the order. Virat Kohli was also backed by MS Dhoni when he was on the verge of getting dropped from the team.

Furthermore, Virat Kohli grew in stature under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Kohli is instrumental in the success of the limited-overs format and helped Indian team in reaching new heights.

Dhoni specialty was always limited-overs format. In fact, he was the King of white-ball format. However, his captaincy skills were a bit defensive in the red-ball format.

For MS Dhoni, his team was able to hold its nerves in the big events, which led to the three major titles under his belt. It was early days for him as Indian captain when he led a young side to the maiden title in World T20 in 2007.

The likes of Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir were the architects of team’s performance. The same was repeated in 2011 World Cup and the 2013 Champions Trophy. Thus, Dhoni bagged every limited overs trophy under his belt.