'He taught India to win matches abroad' - Virender Sehwag picks better captain between Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag feels that Sourav Ganguly was a better captain than Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the former built a team with new members from scratch, while Dhoni was lucky in the sense that he got to lead a more settled unit from the start.

Answering the question on RJ Raunak’s YouTube show “13 Jawab Nahi”, Sehwag said: “I feel captaincy-wise, both of them were great. But I feel the best amongst the two was Ganguly because he built the team from the onset, took in new players and rebuilt a unit. He taught India to win matches abroad, we drew Test matches, won some abroad under him.”

“Dhoni was lucky in the sense that he got the same team to lead that Ganguly had nurtured, so they both were great but better was Sourav Ganguly,” he added.

Sehwag reveals why he refused a single on 199 against Sri Lanka

Sehwag was also questioned about why did he refuse a single once while playing on 199. “This is a very old tale. We were on Sri Lanka’s tour in 2008. I remember Muttiah Muralitharan was bowling and I had Ishant Sharma at the non-striker’s end. I knew that if I take a single, Muralitharan would dismiss Ishant, so I decided to farm the strike and save Ishant. But Muralitharan placed all the fielders close by, and luckily the ball went in the gap and we took a single on the last ball. Ishant did not survive too long after that and was dismissed in the very next over.”

Sehwag also revealed his favourite ground to be Mohali. “I have always loved Mohali. I always enjoyed playing there. Whenever I used to step out at that venue, I felt I will score runs for sure. Also, there are huge sofas there, so even if you get dismissed, just go back and relax on those sofas. Outside India, I like Melbourne. The food there is great, and even at that venue I felt like I would be able to score many runs.”

Sehwag represented India in 104 Tests, 251 ODIs and 19 T20Is, scoring 8586, 8273 and 394 runs, respectively, including 38 centuries and 72 half-centuries.