Sourav Ganguly as an Indian Captain was a game changer for Indian Cricket in the 2000s.
Especially in Overseas tests, Sourav Ganguly has proved himself the best Indian Captain statistically.
Playing outside India, Team India has won out of 11 out of 28 Test matches under Ganguly.
Sourav has the Win percentage of 42.85 in Tests & 53.90 in ODIs.
Let us look into the captaincy records of Sourav Ganguly in detail:
There has always been a debate on ” Who is the better Indian Captain among MS Dhoni & Sourav Ganguly or in this case, Virat Kohli, the current Captain?”
MS Dhoni has the record for Most Wins as Indian Captain. Still, Sourav Ganguly as Captain has a better Overseas Record when compared to Captain Cool.
Sourav Ganguly Captaincy Record in Tests
When it comes to Test captaincy, Sourav Ganguly has changed the way the Indian team has played the game.
He was bold, aggressive and had the most-wanted killer attitude, which made the Indian team looked different & stronger, especially when they were travelling.
Indian team under Sourav Ganguly was not afraid of playing in some of the toughest conditions overseas.
They even beat the mighty Australia in Australia to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2003. The 4-match Test Series ended in a draw (1-1).
Sourav Ganguly has the best Indian captaincy record in Overseas.
And look at this Comparative analysis on Top-4 Indian Test Captains.
Indian Test Captaincy Record
| PLAYER | MATCHES AS CAPTAIN | WON | LOST | DRAWN | TIED | WIN% | OVERSEAS WINS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 68 | 40 | 17 | 11 | 0 | 58.82 | 16 |
| MS Dhoni | 60 | 27 | 18 | 15 | 0 | 45 | 6 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 49 | 21 | 13 | 15 | 0 | 42.85 | 11 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 47 | 14 | 14 | 19 | 0 | 29.78 | 3 |
| Rohit Sharma | 22 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 54.54 | 2 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 47 | 9 | 8 | 30 | 0 | 19.14 | 3 |
| Nawab of Pataudi | 40 | 9 | 19 | 12 | 0 | 22.5 | 2 |
| Rahul Dravid | 25 | 8 | 6 | 11 | 0 | 32 | 5 |
| Bishan Singh Bedi | 22 | 6 | 11 | 12 | 0 | 27.27 | 3 |
| Kapil Dev | 34 | 4 | 7 | 22 | 1 | 11.76 | 2 |
Virat Kohli as Captain has been growing up really fast. He has overgrown Sourav Ganguly recently with the 2nd Most Wins by an Indian Captain in Tests.
And when it comes to runs scored as Captain, Virat once again leads the chart by a mile.
Most Runs as Indian Captain in Test Cricket
| PLAYER | MATCHES AS CAPTAIN | INNINGS | RUNS | 100s | 50s | AVERAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 68 | 113 | 5864 | 20 | 18 | 54.4 |
| MS Dhoni | 60 | 96 | 3454 | 5 | 24 | 40.64 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 47 | 74 | 3449 | 11 | 14 | 50.72 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 47 | 68 | 2856 | 9 | 9 | 43.94 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 49 | 75 | 2561 | 5 | 13 | 37.66 |
| N Pataudi | 40 | 73 | 2424 | 5 | 13 | 34.14 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 25 | 43 | 2054 | 7 | 7 | 51.35 |
| Rahul Dravid | 25 | 45 | 1736 | 4 | 10 | 44.51 |
| Kapil Dev | 34 | 48 | 1364 | 3 | 8 | 31.72 |
Sourav Ganguly ODI Captaincy Record
Finishing the World Cup 2003 as Runners & beating England in the final of the Natwest Trophy in 2002 are the two main highlights of Sourav Ganguly as Captain in ODIs.
The famous Ganguly T-Shirt incident was part of the Natwest Trophy final in Lords.
Here is Sourav Ganguly’s record as Captain in ODIs:
Sourav comes 3rd in the list of most matches & most wins as Captain for Team India after MS Dhoni(200) & Mohammad Azharuddin(174).
Sourav Ganguly is also one of the 7 Captains in Cricket to score 5000+ ODI runs as Captain.
Most Runs as Indian Captain in ODI Cricket
| PLAYER | MATCHES | INNINGS | NOT OUTS | RUNS | HIGH SCORE | AVEAGE | STRIKE RATE | 100/50 | DUCKS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS Dhoni | 200 | 172 | 48 | 6641 | 139* | 53.55 | 86.21 | 6/47 | 3 |
| Virat Kohli | 95 | 91 | 16 | 5449 | 160* | 72.65 | 98.28 | 21/27 | 3 |
| Mohammad Azharuddin | 174 | 162 | 29 | 5239 | 153* | 39.39 | 78.46 | 4/37 | 6 |
| Sourav Ganguly | 146 | 142 | 11 | 5082 | 144 | 38.79 | 76.32 | 11/30 | 9 |
| Rahul Dravid | 79 | 75 | 12 | 2658 | 105 | 42.19 | 75.42 | 2/25 | 4 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 73 | 70 | 5 | 2454 | 186* | 37.75 | 83.46 | 6/12 | 4 |
| Rohit Sharma | 48 | 47 | 7 | 2204 | 208* | 55.10 | 112.50 | 4/16 | 3 |
| Kapil Dev | 74 | 67 | 16 | 1564 | 175* | 30.66 | 105.74 | 1/7 | 4 |
| Sunil Gavaskar | 37 | 31 | 4 | 702 | 80 | 26 | 61.68 | 0/5 | 3 |
| Dilip Vengsarkar | 18 | 17 | 2 | 481 | 88 | 32.06 | 67.46 | 0/4 | 2 |
Ganguly’s Achievement as Captain
Even though Sourav’s stats as Captain looks marginal when compared to MS Dhoni, we should think of the fact that Sourav Ganguly had managed a young and inexperienced team from the start of his captaincy stint.
Yes, he had Sachin Tendulkar & Rahul Dravid in his sides. Still, the role of Captain was a completely different one when he was made the captain.
It was a time when Indian people lost trust in the game after the match-fixing scandals. No other players were ready to be the Captain then.
He almost got a team with no experience and turned them into match-winners.
India reached the 2003 World Cup finals in which they lost against Australia but brought back the confidence on the Indian fans towards Cricket.
He introduced Mohammed Kaif, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh & MS Dhoni. He also backed them to become the world class players they are now.
He once said in an interview, “If I saw a talent, we had to pick him up.”
He even gave up his opener position to Virender Sehwag, which made the later – a player what he turned out into.
[Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly pair in ODI are the record holders of most partnership runs in ODI ever for any wickets]
Adding to all, he can bowl and field really well too.
He is one of the 5 International Cricket player to have a treble of 10000 Runs, 100 Wickets & 100 Catches in ODI.
And he was also the 3rd batsman to enter the league of 10000 ODI Runs.
Wrapping it up!
Things didn’t go well for Sourav Ganguly when Greg Chappell was appointed the Indian Team Coach in 2006.
He was taken out of Captaincy, then as a player.
He could have easily said good-bye to cricket with the numbers & reputation he had achieved in cricket in his captaincy days.
But to everyone’s shock, he came back to the Indian team, after playing domestic tournaments.
And that’s how he had been always. The epitome of a never give-up attitude!
You can read more about Sourav Ganguly’s life as a Player, a Captain & a Leader who never gave up in his book “A Century is not Enough“
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