MS Dhoni or Sourav Ganguly? Aakash Chopra makes a choice between the captaincy of both Indian skippers

As the world has come to a halt due to the outbreak of coronavirus, all sporting events have also been called off or postponed. In the lockdown state, cricketers have resorted to Question & Answer session or Instagram live. Many cricketers have been active on social media including the likes of Kevin Pietersen, Rohit Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal and Yuvraj Singh.

Former cricketers-turned-commentators Aakash Chopra and Ramiz Raja also joined the trend and talked on Chopra’s Youtube channel. From players, MS Dhoni’s future, World Test Championship and India-Pakistan dugouts– both Chopra and Raja discussed on a plethora of topics. One unique topic in the discussion was the debate between the captaincy of MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly.

Both Chopra and Raja voiced their opinions and compared the captaincy stints of Ganguly and Dhoni. The two stalwarts are regarded as the two most successful skippers in the history of Indian cricket. Chopra stated that he would pick Ganguly’s era as ‘Dada’ had to gain the trust of people post the match-fixing scandal. And it was during Ganguly’s captaincy when the Indian side started winning overseas.

‘We started winning overseas under Ganguly’: Aakash Chopra

According to Chopra, Dhoni eventually reaped what Ganguly achieved in his era. Chopra also lauded Dhoni’s man-manager skills and said that the Ranchi-born wicket-keeper batsman had to handle big stars as well as young players during his stint as India’s captain.

“I would pick Sourav Ganguly’s era. He had to regain the trust of the people after the match-fixing scandal and make a team from scratch. His eye for talent stood out as he brought in young talents and also went forward with the support of other senior players,” said Chopra.

“We started winning overseas [such as, drawing in England and Australia and winning in Pakistan]. Dhoni reaped rewards of all this but he excelled for his exceptional man-manager skills as he had to handle big stars and young players. He did that really well,” he added.