‘We only talk about Ganguly, Dhoni, Kohli’: Gambhir says Dravid does not get enough credit for captaincy

Speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Gautam Gambhir talked about the impact Rahul Dravid had on the Indian cricket team as a captain.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kapil Dev, Sourav Ganguly, and now Virat Kohli are some of the names that come to mind whenever someone discusses the greatest Indian captains. But for former India opener Gautam Gambhir, a name that misses the discussion is that of Rahul Dravid. The right-hander captained India in 79 ODIs out of which India won 42 matches, and lost 33 games, with a winning percentage of 56. He also captained India in 25 Tests in which he won 8, and lost 6, with a winning percentage of 32.00.

File image of Gautam Gambhir and Rahul Dravid. (AFP)

Speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Gambhir talked about the impact Dravid had on the Indian cricket team as a captain and said: “I made my one-day debut under Sourav Ganguly and my Test debut under Rahul Dravid. It is so unfortunate that we do not give Rahul Dravid enough credit for his captaincy.”

“We only talk about Sourav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, now we talk about Virat Kohli, but Rahul Dravid has been a fabulous captain for India as well. Even his records, he’s probably the most under-rated cricketer and probably the most under-rated leader as well. We won in England, West Indies, we won some 14 or 15 games (17 games) on the trot,” he added.

The former left-hander also said that Dravid was ready to play each and every role he is asked to play for his team. Dravid kept wickets at the 2003 World Cup, and even played as an opener in the longest format at one stage.

“If you look at Dravid as a cricketer, I think if you asked him to open the batting in Test cricket, he did, he batted at No. 3, he kept wickets for India, he batted as a finisher, he did everything what Indian cricket asked him or what a captain asked him to do and that is the kind of role models you want. For me, I think he has had a bigger impact,” Gambhir said.

“Sourav Ganguly has always had a bigger impact in white-ball cricket because of his flamboyance, but Rahul Dravid overall, in Indian cricket, had a much bigger impact than probably anyone,” he further explained.

Gambhir further said that Dravid’s impact to the Indian cricket can even be compared to the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. “You can actually match his impact to someone like Sachin Tendulkar as well because he played under the shadows of Sachin Tendulkar all his life, but yes, impact wise, probably the same,” he said.