I think Gautam Gambhir should've led India a lot more: Irfan Pathan

India cricketer Gautam Gambhir was an absolute match-winner for his team on his day. He played two brilliant knocks with the bat in the World Cup finals which saw India lifting the trophy. But very few are aware of the fact that Gambhir also led the Indian team, albeit for a brief period. The Men in Blue went on to win all six ODIs played under him, and for the same reason, Irfan Pathan feels the southpaw should’ve led India more.

Six ODI wins under Gautam Gambhir’s leadership included a 5-0 whitewash of New Zealand at home as well. Moreover, his captaincy skills were on show in the Indian Premier League (IPL) later playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The franchise named him the skipper in the 2011 season, and he returned with two trophies in 2012 and 2014 for them.

Irfan Pathan, while lauding the former Delhi cricketer’s captaincy qualities, felt that he should’ve played as captain for India more. At the same time, Irfan also cleared that he also has massive respect for the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble for what they’ve achieved as India skipper.

“I have huge respect for Sourav Ganguly, I have great respect for the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and I think Gautam Gambhir should have led the Indian team a lot more as well than he did. He could have been a really good leader. I really admire Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, but that doesn’t mean, I don’t admire the quality of Mahendra Singh Dhoni,” he said while speaking to Cricket.com.

People don’t talk about Rahul Dravid much, Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan also praised Rahul Dravid for his excellent record when he led team India. He pointed out that the team won 16 consecutive ODIs while chasing a target under his captaincy but it never gets mentioned anywhere regularly.

“People don’t talk about Rahul Dravid as much. So, people who don’t talk about Rahul Dravid as much, do they dislike him? No. Under his captaincy, India won 16 consecutive ODIs while chasing. Sometimes it gets under the wrap. As a winning captain, as a result-oriented captain and the guy who got the result, who had an excellent team, it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni,” Irfan further added.