Former India batsman turned popular commentator, Aakash Chopra has been pretty active over social media these days to engage with fans, who have been deprived of cricket because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chopra has been coming out with videos over his youtube channel on interesting topics related to the game of cricket. In one such video on Wednesday (March 26), the ex right-hand batsman revealed his top-six Indian captains in the history of the game.
WATCH - Dhoni, De Villiers feature among Aakash Chopra's top six power-hitters
At No.6, Chopra picked Ajit Wadekar, captain of the Indian team when it pulled off its first major overseas series wins in West Indies and England in 1971. Wadekar's team gave the nation a much-needed lift and confidence that we can not only win at home but also rewrite history abroad.
"Under Ajit Wadekar, we won for the first time in West Indies and England- both in 1971," Chopra was heard saying. "He may have captained in only 18 matches, in which we didn’t win a lot of Test matches, but then we are talking of the 1970s here."
"Under Wadekar, India started winning and the seeds of them becoming a superpower were laid under his leadership."
Next in the list was Rahul Dravid, who captained India intermittently while Saurav Ganguly was the skipper before taking over for a brief, successful but contentious tenure, full of talks around the then head coach Greg Chappell and India's disappointing 2007 World Cup exit, either side of a fine run in ODIs against top sides and Test series in West Indies and England.
"He also didn’t captain for a long time, he actually relinquished the leadership [post winning the Test series in England in 2007]," Chopra said. "He saw a few highs but he also saw a very bad low which was the 2007 World Cup in West Indies where the team was knocked out in the first round. But then, under his leadership, we went on to beat England in England, a place where we haven’t managed to win post that. His win percentage is also outstanding."
Under Virat Kohli, who is at fourth in Chopra's list, India has enjoyed unprecedented success against top sides in the limited-overs game and also been at top of the ICC Test rankings for the last three years.
"He has a good team, he is steadily becoming a better captain," Chopra said. "He may not have won an ICC trophy but under his leadership, but from the past three years the team has been at the numero-uno spot in the Test rankings. He will also play the final of Test championship and may possibly also win it. As far as ICC events are concerned, the team has always made its way to the semis or even the finals."
Placed third is Sourav Ganguly, the "Dada" of Indian cricket, who took over at the turn of the century when the nation was hurting from the spot-fixing saga and not only did that side overcome that phase by regaining the lost trust of the fanfare, it flourished across conditions against top-quality opponents.
Chopra then enlisted the legendary Kapil Dev at the second spot for completely transforming the game of cricket by lifting the 1983 World Cup trophy at Lord's, beating a mighty West Indies side in the tournament final on June 25.
At the numero-uno spot features another Indian giant, the great Mahendra Singh Dhoni, under whom India lifted three major world titles, the inaugural 2007 T20 World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy either side of the historic 2011 50-over World Cup triumph, and also became the No.1 ranked Test side for the very first time.
Aakash Chopra's top-six Indian captains:
1) MS Dhoni
2) Kapil Dev
3) Sourav Ganguly
4) Virat Kohli
5) Rahul Dravid
6) Ajit Wadekar
