IND v ENG 2021: "Difficult to put Kohli in same category as Lloyd or Waugh as captain," says Swann

Graeme Swann believes that this team is not yet the 'best ever India has had'.

Virat Kohli | BCCI

Former England spinner Graeme Swann feels that Indian skipper Virat Kohli is not in the same category of great captains like Clive Lloyd of West Indies or Steve Waugh of Australia, but he is certainly on his way up there.

Swann was a part of the England squad that beat a full-strength Indian team in India back in 2012. Under the leadership of Sir Alistair Cook, England won the 4-Test series 2-1 against a team that consisted the likes of Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harbhajan Singh and a few others led by MS Dhoni.

Graeme Swann told Star Sports, "The Indian team I played against in 2012 was way better than this. I mean, how we beat India back then I’d never know. They are a fine team, I think they have got a good leader. I think it’s very difficult to put Virat Kohli in the same category as Clive Lloyd, Steve Waugh because a captain is judged on how well his team does."

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This current Indian cricket team beat Australia in the longest format of the game down under despite the absence of some of their best cricketers. However, Swann still believes that they did not face an Australian side that wasn't as strong the ones faced by MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly as captains.

The 41-year-old said, "They are a very good team at the moment but I don't think the Australian team that India went and beat two months ago was anywhere near the Australian team, that say MS Dhoni had to face or Sachin Tendulkar or Ganguly."

"So you have to take it with a pinch of salt. He's a very good captain, with a very good team under his belt, but we should leave it at that now. I don't think we should get too carried away but he’s certainly on track to be probably one of the all-time greats," Swann concluded.

 
 

By Sameer Deodhar - 04 Mar, 2021

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