India's greatest Test Captain: The Debate Continues

India’s greatest Test Captain: The Debate Continues: Who is India’s greatest test captain? Is it Mahendra Singh Dhoni, India’s most successful captain in terms of statistical percentage? Or is it Sourav Ganguly, the man who taught the team to believe and win test matches away from home? The debate will keep on continuing with no end, with fans of both the cricketers trying to defend them. So trying to end the debate, let us have a detailed insight into the stats of the two captains, keeping in mind the fact that India touched greater heights and unravelled new dimensions under both of them.

In the first place, let us decide with simple statistics, as put forward by statisticians, the record that has been on the internet for the general public.

The success percent shows that Dhoni is way ahead of Ganguly in terms of number of wins, but one should be aware of the fact that Dhoni has also led in 11 more tests than the southpaw of Bengal. If records are anything to go by, we can use simple mathematics to show that in those extra 11 test matches, Dhoni has won 6 and lost 5, taking the total number of losses to 18 during his tenure as captain. With one more loss, Dhoni would have become the Indian captain with most test losses, equalling Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s tally of 19 test losses. So we can conclude from here that just success percent is not enough to determine the credibility as a skipper.

Therefore, we have decided to go into detailed insights, that will include the position of the National Team, win-loss ratios at home and abroad, win ratios, loss ratios and win-loss ratios with taking draws in account. A draw in a test match will contribute 0.5 each to wins and losses by a captain, thereby trying to provide a correct win-loss ratio. The win and loss ratio will be counted by Home:Abroad

The above table counts the win ratio of the two captains. Lower the win ratio, more it defines the effectively of the captain. The win ratio of Sourav Ganguly, which is 0.91 is way better than that of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, whose win ratio stands at 3.5. For every test win at home, Ganguly has won at least 1 test away from home, whereas in the case of Dhoni, it took almost 4 wins at home to record a test win overseas. The record of overseas wins speak for Ganguly as he is still India’s most successful captain away from home, but when it comes to home tests, Dhoni was simply magnificent as he went on to win 21 home tests.

Winning and losing is a part of the game. Every successful captain has lost test matches both in and away from home. One cannot separate Ganguly and Dhoni, when it comes to the number of test losses at home, as both of them have lost 3 tests each, but when it comes to away tests, Ganguly has lost just 10 tests compared to Dhoni’s 15. The loss ratio says that Ganguly as lost almost 3 abroad tests between every loss at home, whereas Dhoni has lost 5 abroad tests between every home test loss. Apart from that, Sourav has not been white-washed in any away test series, the record which Dhoni holds. India and Pakistan do not play each other a lot these days, and if it happened, Dhoni may have had more home and away test losses.

We have failed to find out who is the best test captain of India, from the above two paragraphs. It clearly stated that while Ganguly is the best Indian test captain away from home, Dhoni has no match, when the tests are within the country. But it is impossible to decide two best captains, so we have decided to take in account the overall win-loss ratio of the two captains, both with and without draws. In both the cases, Ganguly is way ahead of Dhoni. For every 29 tests that ended with a result, Ganguly has won 18 and lost 11, while Dhoni has won 17 and lost 12. If the win-loss ratio with draws are decoded, then for every 15 tests, Ganguly has won 9 tests, lost 6 and drew 0, whereas Dhoni have won 8, lost 6 and 1 ended in a draw.

The improvement of the National Team in the ICC Test Rankings Table during the tenure of the captains

No one will acknowledge the fact that Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the only Indian captain to have lifted the ICC Test Mace, when they will look at the ICC Test Rankings. When Sourav Ganguly took over the charge of the Indian National team on November 10 in the year 2000, India were ranked 8 in tests. When he left the captaincy of the side on September 22, 2005, after almost 5 years, India were ranked Number 2 in Tests. Mahendra Singh Dhoni took over the charge of the side on November 6, 2008 and when he left the captaincy on the penultimate day of the year, 2014, India are lagging deep down at Number 7 in the table.

Both the captains had a young team but the effect is easily visible. When India touched the numerous spot in Tests, the side still featured 3 players from the early 2000s in Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. But with the trio retiring in early 2012, Dhoni has failed to inspired the youngsters in the side and failed to instill the belief that they have the capability to win any match against any team at any venue. They say that a captain is as good as his team but it’s also the duty of the captain to lead the team by example.

Not taking away any credit from the two captains, Dada and Dhoni, we must agree that both of them have led the team with immense respect, through turbulent times and have been a selfless servant to the nation. Since Dhoni has now retired from tests, we wish him all the best for the rest of his cricket career.