Sourav Ganguly built a new Indian team, doubt if Virat Kohli did, Virender Sehwag says ahead of RCB vs GT clash

Virender Sehwag went on to say that those captains are No 1, in his eyes, who build a team and give confidence to his players and Sourav Ganguly was pretty good at doing that

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag is known for speaking his mind out loud and he didn't mince his words when he was asked to compare the two former Indian captains - Sourav Ganguly and Virat Kohli. 

Commenting on how good both these cricketers were as captain in an interaction on Home of Heroes, Sports18, Sehwag said that Ganguly was able to make a new team from the scratch that also included him but Kohli could not.  

"Sourav Ganguly built a new team, brought in new players and backed them through their highs and lows," said Sehwag.

"I doubt if Kohli did that in his tenure," he added.

Sehwag did not stop there. He went on to say that those captains are No 1, in his eyes, who build a team and give confidence to his players and Ganguly was pretty good at that But Kohli while backing some players, did not stand behind others.

"In my opinion, the #1 captain is the one who builds a team and gives confidence to his players. He (Kohli) backed some players, some he did not," said Sehwag.

Who's better?

It is true that Ganguly led India to three ICC events final. India played the ICC Knockouts in 2002. Two years later, India also featured in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy which they shared with Sri Lanka. India reached the final of ICC ODI World Cup 2003 in South Africa which they lost to Australia. Under Ganguly, India drew a series in 2004 too. Not to forget, India beat Australia at home in 2001, which is among country's greatest Test wins. 

While Kohli has not been influential as a leader in ICC events, he has done well as Test captain. In ODIs, under Kohli, India reached the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017, which they lost to Pakistan. India reached the semi-finals of the ICC ODI World Cup in 2019. One of the most terrible campaigns was the 2021 T20 World Cup after which Kohli relinquished captaincy. Kohli however led Indian to many bilateral series wins, in India and abroad.

Under him, India won a Test series for the first time in Australia in 2018-19. He won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 2017 and led India to back-to-back series wins in India against top opponents.

While it is difficult to underline who is a better captain, each led their side with passion and did extremely well as leaders in their own ways.