Former India fast bowler Zaheer Khan, who played under the leadership of both Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni, recently drew parallels between the two captains.

See Also: "Personal experience of 2003 helped while bowling in 2011 World Cup final" - Zaheer Khan 

As per Zaheer, there were a lot of similarities between the two when it came to guiding young players in the team.

Having made his international debut in 2000, Zaheer also played under the likes of Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Virender Sehwag at different junctures in his stellar career.

"Absolutely, that's what you need at that stage of your career (push from Ganguly). When you're starting your careers at the international level, you need all the support you can and then it will be upto you to shape your career. But that initial support is very vital," Zaheer said in Gaurav Kapur’s Youtube chat show Isolation Premier League.

"Both of them have led India for a long time. With MS[Dhoni], I have seen that change as well.

"When MS got the team, he had a lot of senior players who were experienced at the international level. So he didn't have to do much in terms of getting them up to speed. But once all those guys started retiring, when the young batch came in, he played a similar kind of role, did similar kind of things to what Dada was doing with the young lot.

As Zaheer pointed, Ganguly and Dhoni instilled confidence in a lot of young players and many of them lived up to their expectations as well. While the likes of Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh among others turned out to be match-winners under Ganguly, players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin among others shined through in Dhoni’s guidance.

After Dhoni relinquished the captaincy duties, Kohli succeeded him across the three formats of the game.

"In Indian cricket, every decade the captain has passed baton to the next in line and the person who has taken the baton has led to the team to the next level," Zaheer Khan said.