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?”
Click here to compare and analyse other Captains’ records
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 conditions during his time and only bettered by Virat Kohli later.
And look at this comparative analysis on top 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 | 24 | 12 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 50.00 | 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 |
And when it comes to runs scored as captain, Virat 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 the 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 overall 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 |
| Rohit Sharma | 56 | 55 | 7 | 2506 | 208* | 52.20 | 111.97 | 5/17 | 3 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 73 | 70 | 5 | 2454 | 186* | 37.75 | 83.46 | 6/12 | 4 |
| 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 in the sport.
He introduced Mohammed Kaif, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh & MS Dhoni and then backed them to become the world class players they ended up as.
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.
