Pakistan fast bowling legend Waqar Younis heaped praise on Indian captains Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, saying the solid foundation of India's all-round success that the former laid during his tenure at the start of the century was wonderfully taken forward by the latter.
"Sourav Ganguly was the one who started that journey of improvement for Indian cricket and MS Dhoni took that journey ahead," said Waqar in a chat at GloFans Twitter platform during 'Q20'. "He (Dhoni) is a World Cup champion and has won two World Cups (in ODI and T20I). I think he has done wonderfully well for himself, for his country and, of course, for his family."
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Ganguly took over in 2000 at the time when Indian cricket was hurting because of the spot-fixing scandal that had happened in the late 90s and the team's on-field results were abysmal, especially overseas.
When he relinquished his post in 2005, Ganguly had overseen one of the most significant periods, where Team India started winning abroad and reached the final of the 2003 World Cup, with youngsters like Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh taking giant strides.
Rahul Dravid replaced Ganguly for another substantial phase, which, even though saw India winning Test series in England, West Indies and rebuilding a strong ODI outfit, was marred by talks around Ganguly's fall out with the then coach Greg Chappell and the first-round exit in 2007 World Cup.
With Dravid, as well as Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly, deciding not to travel for the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup that followed, Dhoni got the reigns despite the presence of Sehwag and Yuvraj in an enormous move by the selectors and the rest, as they say, is history.
Dhoni soon took over full time, leading India to glory at the 2011 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy, either side of taking the side to No.1 in ICC Test rankings, in a legendary run as captain.
"What a cricketer MS Dhoni is," said Waqar. "The way he led the team, it is difficult to express it in words. He is a very good and big leader who understands things. He is a wonderful human being; and coming from a small village, the heights he has achieved, plus leading such a big country and team, is indeed praiseworthy."
Dhoni passed on the baton to Virat Kohli, a modern-day batting great, who, according to Waqar, is also doing a fine job at the helm across formats, leading by example for youngsters with his run-making and passion for winning.
"Virat Kohli has evolved the game and all the formats of the modern-day cricket, including T20 cricket, one-day (cricket) suits him a lot and he is brilliant in Test matches (as well). But the biggest difference he brought to cricket that is followed and watched worldwide is his fitness," said Waqar.
"He has set a bar of fitness worldwide, for players; I think it is hard to beat. I think for that reason also, you like everything about Virat Kohli. He is fit, he is always in your face, he wants to prove you that he is the best, he is a fighter, so that is why we all like him," he added.
(Inputs from IANS)
