top Indian test skipper[s]

[ret]

will list a few from the top of my head - Pataudi, Wadekar, Gavaskar, Kapil, Azharudin, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble

who are the top 3 in your opinion?

 

[Richard]

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi
Sourav Ganguly
Ajit Wadekar
IMO.

 

[DaRick]

will list a few from the top of my head - Pataudi, Wadekar, Gavaskar, Kapil, Azharudin, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Kumble

who are the top 3 in your opinion?

I'm not sure why Tendulkar and Kumble are even in consideration, TBH.

As for who the top 3 may be, I'm unsure. I know close to nothing about Indian cricket before the 1990's.

 

[Sanz]

Sourav Ganguly, Tiger Pataudi and Lala Amarnath.

 

[silentstriker]

Ganguly is definitely the top three, if not #1. Absolutely love the guy.

 

[Fusion]

Ganguly is definitely the top three, if not #1. Absolutely love the guy.

AWTA. I think Ganguly is the best Test captain India ever had.

 

[Richard]

How much have you guys read of MAK?

 

[Uppercut]

Kumble has been a very poor captain when i have watched him.

 

[haroon510]

dada ganguly

 

[Anil]

shrewdest captain - pataudi
most successful captain - ganguly
honorable mentions - wadekar, dev, gavaskar

 

[Fusion]

How much have you guys read of MAK?

Enough to still be off the opinion that Ganguly was the best Captain for India. Of course, that does not mean I don’t rate the great Pataudi. I simply think that Ganguly achieved success that was unparalleled in Indian cricket. He instilled confidence and even “attitude” that allowed them to take on the best side of the world and almost come out on top. Aside from the great battles with Australia, he also led India to their first ever series win against Pakistan. No Indian Captain had ever achieved that before!

 

[Sanz]

Ganguly's biggest contribution to Indian Cricket since he became captain :-

He almost single handedly took Indian Cricket out of Match Fixing controversies and made cricket in India relevant again. It was his leadership that braught the Indian fans back into the game.

 

[Richard]

Enough to still be off the opinion that Ganguly was the best Captain for India. Of course, that does not mean I don’t rate the great Pataudi. I simply think that Ganguly achieved success that was unparalleled in Indian cricket. He instilled confidence and even “attitude” that allowed them to take on the best side of the world and almost come out on top. Aside from the great battles with Australia, he also led India to their first ever series win against Pakistan. No Indian Captain had ever achieved that before!

Well - their first win in Pakistan. They'd never won so much as a single Test there before. They had beaten Pakistan at home before tho.

Ganguly certainly did achieve success that was unparralleled in Indian cricket history - but so, in his time, did MAK. Around the time of his captaincy, India could fairly well be argued to be the best side in The World. He didn't win as many overseas Tests as Ganguly did, nowhere near, but he did captain around the time (interchanged with Wadekar) that India had their first spell of consistently winning abroad.

MAK, however, unquestionably did as good a job if not more of one than Ganguly in confidence-instilling. It's always dangerous to quote CricInfo profiles, but his reflects reasonably what I've read elsewhere: "more than anything else, he led Indian cricket out of its morass of defeatism and instilled in his fellow cricketers a belief that winning was possible".

Exactly what Ganguly was famous for. But MAK did it at a time it'd never been done before.

Also, MAK seems to have been a better cricket tactician than Ganguly. I've always said that Ganguly was pretty poor in this respect, same as Clive Lloyd. For this reason, I've always considered MAK and Frank Worrell much their superiors.

 

[masterblaster]

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi
Sourav Ganguly
Ajit Wadekar
IMO.

Agreed entirely with this list and probably in that order too.

 

[honestbharani]

I'm not sure why Tendulkar and Kumble are even in consideration, TBH.

AWTA.



Pataudi, Ganguly for me... Hard to split though I would perhaps lean towards Ganguly for the same reason as Sanz... The fact that he helped India out of that tough match fixing saga...

 

[FRAZ]

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi
Sourav Ganguly
Ajit Wadekar
IMO.

Ganguly was the best captain that India ever had .

 

[Richard]

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ITSTL.