Venkatesh Prasad, the former India pacer, finds Virat Kohli a similar kind of captain as Sourav Ganguly was. Prasad pointed out how, like Ganguly, Kohli too took over the Indian side in difficult times and just as same, has been able to transform the team's culture with inspirational leadership.
Ganguly became Indian captain soon after the match-fixing scandal towards the turn of the century while Kohli first got the leadership reigns when India was struggling in the ICC Test rankings in 2014-15 season following difficult tours to South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia.
"I think Sourav and Virat are pretty much on similar lines, because Sourav also took up captaincy when there were a lot of negative things going around the team. That's one. Second, Sourav had to really transform the team. I think it required huge leadership skills basically. And that's what Sourav showed. He had an amazing leadership quality and he set the standard both as captain and a player. He set very high standards in both categories," Prasad, who played 33 Tests and 151 ODIs for the country, told the Times of India.
Kohli has led from the front in India's resurgence in Tests since then, scoring truck loads of runs in the team's charge to the top of the rankings, where it remained until earlier this year. Under Kohli, India's fast bowling stocks have improved a lot and the team has been, at least infrequently, winning games overseas.
Ganguly, when he led India from 2000 to 2005, got the best out of Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and backed a lot of youngsters who went on to serve the country long, such as Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh. The great MS Dhoni also made his debut under Ganguly.
"There were some shortcomings. When it comes to Sourav's fitness or maybe his fielding skills or whatever. But that's fine. Who doesn't have shortcomings?" asked Prasad. "But what was important at that stage was a good leader. And that's what Sourav showed everybody - what a leader can do. He transformed the team."
"When he took over the captaincy, there were experienced players like Sachin (Tendulkar), (Anil) Kumble, (Rahul) Dravid, Javagal (Srinath) and VVS (Laxman). I myself was there too. They all had some years of experience with them."
"Sachin was the most experienced then, with around 10 plus years of experience. There was a great mix of players. On one side there were experienced players, on the other side you had players like Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh."
"We had a great mix of players, but the leadership skill was extremely important to get the experienced players and the youngsters together and to play for the same mission and same goal. I think that Sourav was wonderful. He transformed the team on his own," he added.
In expressing emotions on the field, however, Prasad thinks Kohli is quite different from Ganguly.
"Sourav never showed his emotions, a couple of times only we have seen Sourav showing his emotions," Prasad said, offering an unpopular view on Ganguly, his ex-skipper. "Virat comes across as a very, very passionate guy and comes with controlled aggression. This doesn't mean that he goes overboard."
"People might feel that he goes overboard but that's his aggression, that's what keeps him going. That is what keeps him in the game. That is what keeps him thinking all the time. It's easily visible, whereas Sourav's aggression wasn't that visible apart from a couple of incidents."
(Inputs from TOI)
