Dhoni Or Ganguly: A Statistical Insight Into Who Fared Better As India's ODI Skipper

A purely statistical insight into why Dhoni edges Ganguly as a more successful skipper in ODI cricket. Read on.

Indian cricket was left with a massive void on its 74th Independence Day as their most successful limited-overs skipper and legendary cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni drew the curtains on a glittering 15-year long international career by announcing his retirement from the sport on August 15.

Dhoni's yeoman service to Indian cricket is exemplary and the iconic cricketer goes down as a colossal giant in terms of the tectonic heights Indian team scaled under his charismatic leadership and astute captaincy. It will be difficult to fill in the massive shoes of Dhoni in terms of the sheer quantum of expertise he brought to the team as a brilliant skipper, finisher par excellence, and electrifying glovesman behind the stumps.

Indian cricket has stamped its authority as one of the powerhouses of ODI cricket courtesy their stellar run of success in white-ball cricket over the last decade...India has arguably been one of the world-beating ODI teams under the captaincy of Virat Kohli and has gone through a purple patch of sorts both at home and away. A major reason behind Kohli's phenomenal success as skipper in one-day international cricket goes to MS Dhoni who built the very foundation of the team which Kohli has taken to loftier heights..Meanwhile, Dhoni was equally fortunate to get the best out of a power-packed team that was built by none other than the charismatic skipper Sourav Ganguly. ALSO READ|After MS Dhoni's Exit, A Chaos Is Guaranteed In Virat’s Team India While Ganguly infused a sense of belief that India could take on the best in their backyard and brought the much required winning psyche into the subcontinent tigers, Dhoni's calm and composed demeanour helped India seize some nerve-wracking moments in major ICC events and clinch the most cherished piece of silverware in white-ball cricket, namely the 2011 ICC World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy. Both Ganguly and Dhoni led from the front and by example. They never shied away from taking bold decisions in the larger interest of the team and also had a visionary approach in spotting the right set of youngsters to build a team for the future. Hence, Indian cricket has been fortunate to have some exceptional leaders and a core group of stalwarts which gelled together to form part of highly successful

With Dhoni bidding farewell to international cricket, it makes for an interesting idea to draw a comparison between Ganguly and Dhoni's captaincy in the limited-overs arena and analyse as to who has the numbers in their favour in terms of higher win percentage and winning more titles as India's ODI captain.INDIA'S RECORD IN ODIS FINALS MUCH BETTER UNDER DHONI India's record in multi-nation tournaments under Mahendra Singh Dhoni improved significantly as the team went onto win more finals than what it did under Sourav Ganguly..While there is not an iota of doubt that India made it to many ODI finals during Ganguly's captaincy but they disappointingly ended up mostly on the losing side.

 The horrendous run of losses in ODI finals changed under Dhoni's command as India annexed the much famed 'ICC Treble' by winning all the three major ICC tournaments, two of them coming in ODIs, namely the 2011 ICC World Cup and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy and one in T20Is, the ICC 2007 T20 World Cup.

Under Dhoni's captaincy, India won the 2011 ICC World Cup (50-overs) and 2013 Champions Trophy, 2008 CB Series, 2009 Compaq Cup, 2010 Asia Cup besides winning Tri-Series final against Sri Lanka in West Indies. Dhoni also had his share of losses as India ended up losing the 2008 Asia Cup and Kitply Cup to arch-rivals Pakistan and a Tri Series final against Sri Lanka in 2010.

Under Ganguly's captaincy, India jointly lifted the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka and won the 2002 Natwest Series in England. However, India lost many multi-nation finals including the 2003 ICC World Cup and the ICC 2000 Knockout Trophy.

Under Ganguly's captaincy, India had a spree of losses in finals of multi-nation ODI tournaments as they finished as the losing finalist in Videocon Cup in 2005, 2004 Asia Cup, VB Series in 2004, Standard Bank and Coca Cola Cup in 2001 and Coca Cola Champions Trophy in 2000

DHONI LED INDIA TO ICC WORLD CUP WIN IN 2011, INDIA FINISHED SECOND BEST IN 2003 WORLD CUP UNDER GANGULY Under Ganguly, India made it to the 2003 ICC World Cup finals but lost to Australia in the grand finale. However, under Dhoni's captaincy, India lifted their second World Cup title beating Sri Lanka in the finals of the 2011 World Cup at Wankhede in Mumbai. RECORD IN CHAMPIONS TROPHY PRETTY EVEN STEVENS WITH ONE TITLE EACH Ganguly led India to a Champions Trophy title in 2002 as they shared the trophy with Sri Lanka in back to back rain-hit finals. Meanwhile, Dhoni added another Champions Trophy title to India's kitty when the 'Men In Blue' won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy beating hosts England in the finals.

INDIA WERE A MORE CONSISTENT ODI TEAM UNDER MS DHONI'S CAPTAINCY 'Men in Blue' enjoyed a higher degree of success under Dhoni's captaincy in ODIs as India's win percentage in the limited-overs format was higher than under Ganguly's captaincy. With 110 wins in 200 ODIs as skipper, Dhoni holds the record for the most wins by an Indian skipper in ODIs. Meanwhile, India enjoyed a decent spell under Ganguly winning 76 of the 146 ODIs he captained the team in.

 Dhoni's win percentage of 59.52% is better than Ganguly's 53.52%. Hence going by statistics, India was more consistent as an ODI unit under Dhoni for a considerable time frame.

RECORD IN OVERSEAS OR NEUTRAL VENUES DECENT UNDER BOTH DHONI AND GANGULY 

A team's pedigree and forte are always judged by how well they have fared in overseas conditions against quality oppositions outside their own home turf. Both Ganguly and Dhoni led India to notable bilateral series wins against formidable ODI teams in their backyard and helped India become a potent outfit outside the subcontinent.

 While India won 67 of the 127 ODIs under Dhoni (52.75% win), they registered 58 wins in the 110 ODIs led by Ganguly (52.72% win record) in either overseas or neutral venues. Hence, it makes for a similar win percentage for the team under both the skippers.

 BOTH GANGULY AND DHONI CONTRIBUTED IMMENSELY WITH THE WILLOW DURING THEIR STINTS AS ODI CAPTAINS

Talk about leading from the front, both the great skippers did it with conviction and .. One ought to remember that both Ganguly and Dhoni were front-line batsmen in the Indian ODI set up while assuming the immense burden of leading the Men In Blue.

 Although both batted at different positions and assumed varied roles, they both were highly consistent with their run-scoring exploits with the willow. While Ganguly racked up 5082 runs at an impressive average of 38.79 as skipper, Dhoni notched up 6641 runs at a staggering 53.55 average donning the ODI captaincy hat.

 While Ganguly, the highly prolific opener, forged some match-winning opening partnership with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag up the order, MS Dhoni was the finisher par excellence scripting and executing numerous chases with Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina.

In a nutshell, MS Dhoni fared better than Sourav Ganguly as India's One-day international captain in terms of enjoying a greater degree of success by winning more consistently and leading the 'Men In Blue' to major ICC titles.

 However, as the cliche goes - statistics are quite a number oriented often hide more than they reveal and hence Ganguly's stellar contribution in building a resilient Indian team after the detrimental 2000 match-fixing saga was pivotal to Dhoni and Kohli enjoying stellar spells as Indian skippers in ODIs.

*Note this piece takes only the captaincy records of Dhoni and Ganguly in the ODI format into consideration and does not entail an analysis into how they match up as Test skippers.