Former Bangladeshi captain Mashrafe Mortaza revealed his three picks for the best international cricket captains he has seen so far.

He named MS Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, and Ricky Ponting as the best captains he has seen in cricket. He reckoned Ganguly as his most liked captain in the world. Ganguly captained India from 2000-2005, helping India win matches overseas regularly and reaching the finals of the 2003 World Cup being his achievements. He also led the team to joint winners of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy.

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“As a captain, I never followed anyone. Sumon (Habibul Bashar) is the best skipper from Bangladesh. If I had to pick from the entire world, I would go for Sourav Ganguly. I heard a lot about Imran Khan, but didn’t get to see him much,” said Mashrafe as quoted by Business Standard.

On the other hand, MS Dhoni-led India to multiple title wins in international cricket including ICC World Cup 2011, ICC T20 World Cup 2007, and ICC Champions Trophy 2013. While Ricky Ponting helped Australia maintain their dominance by leading them to two World Cup titles in 2003 and 2007 while winning the Champions Trophy in 2006 and 2009.

“From the ones I have seen, I would pick Ricky Ponting, though everyone may say that he was lucky to get a strong team. But I will say that the team needed to be taken care of even with big names. There are a lot of players who had records similar to Ponting. They needed to be managed as well,” he added.

“So, after Ponting and Ganguly, I’ll go for MS Dhoni. I have seen Dhoni throughout his career. These are my best three. Among them, Ganguly was very different, and I would be placing him ahead of Dhoni and Ponting,” Mashrafe added further.

(Business Standard inputs)