The 10 Greatest Test Captains

[King Cricket]

Nawab of Pataudi

Don't think that the Nawab of Pataudi deserves to be in the top 10. What's your logic behind including him? I will take Dada, Kapildev or maybe even Azhar, ahead of him anyday of the week.

 

[Precambrian]

Welcome Jester Pietersen!

Mohammed Ashraful
Virender Sehwag
Colin Cowdrey
Ricky Ponting
Andrew Flintoff
Shoaib Malik
Daren Ganga
Ian Botham
Kevin Pietersen
Anil Kumble

Hope it helps.

Absolutely fantastic phantaorgamsic miamic precambrianic post. Deserves the Skulls.

My list would be

Mike Brearley
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Mark Taylor
Allan Border
Ian Chappell
Saurav Ganguly
Stephen Fleming
Sir Donald Bradman

Hope this sucks.

 

[King Cricket]

Just out of curiosity, is MSD the only skipper in the history of cricket who is yet to lose a test match?

 

[King Pietersen]

Don't think that the Nawab of Pataudi deserves to be in the top 10. What's your logic behind including him? I will take Dada, Kapildev or maybe even Azhar, ahead of him anyday of the week.

He took over the Indian side at just 21, captained in 40 of the 46 Tests he played, and all that with impaired vision in his right eye thanks to a car accident. He was an excellent tactician and led India to their first ever Test win against New Zealand. He introduced the method of playing 3 Frontline spinners, with Venkataraghavan, Chandrasekhar and Bedi being the 3 big name spinners.

Cricinfo happen to agree with me, calling him 'unarguably, India's greatest captain ever'. He more than deserves to be in the Top 10, certainly far more so than MS Dhoni.

 

[King Cricket]

He took over the Indian side at just 21, captained in 40 of the 46 Tests he played, and all that with impaired vision in his right eye thanks to a car accident. He was an excellent tactician and led India to their first ever Test win against New Zealand. He introduced the method of playing 3 Frontline spinners, with Venkataraghavan, Chandrasekhar and Bedi being the 3 big name spinners.

Cricinfo happen to agree with me, calling him 'unarguably, India's greatest captain ever'. He more than deserves to be in the Top 10, certainly far more so than MS Dhoni.

Pataudi has captained India in 40 tests, and could win just 9 of them. Losing 19 and drawing 12. He could not win a single match against England and West Indies, who were the world's best and second best at that point of time, in their home soil. He also could manage just 3 overseas victories, all of them coming against New Zealand. He was thrashed by Australia in Australia. And his record in the tests played inside India is also not decent- just 6 victories. Yes, he might have been the best Indian captain in his era. But now....nope.
I stick to my point, Dada, Azhar etc over him anyday.

 

[Precambrian]

Dhoni > Ganguly > other captains.

 

[King Pietersen]

So his captaincy isn't as good because the team he captained didn't get the results? =/ Pataudi got India there first ever Test win, and was captaining the side from the age of 21, surely you can see how important that is? He was the first Indian captain to truely exploit the turning conditions by bringing in the 3 frontline spinners, and he was an excellent tactician. It wasn't his fault that India weren't producing players to match the best sides in the world, he was still an excellent captain though. Results don't guaratnee an excellent captain, Ponting is proof of that, he was just blessed with a superb pool of talent.

ROFL. I hope you're joking Precum. Dhoni is not the finest Indian captain of all-time.

 

[Precambrian]

Tendulkar also captained India when he was 21.

So results don't count for him as well?

 

[King Pietersen]

Results do count, but you have to take into account far more than purely results. Pataudi captained India in an era where they were very poor, and he managed to give them some momentum and get a few wins under their belt. Results should not be the be all and end all when captaincy skills are considered. Fleming had a poorer record than Ponting in Tests, but you'll be lucky to find many that consider Ponting a finer captain than Fleming. Pataudi was a much better captain than Dhoni has been and probably ever will be.

 

[King Cricket]

My top 5 Indian test captains

1. Sourav Ganguly
2. Md Azharuddin
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Kapil Dev
5. MAK Pataudi

 

[Precambrian]

Results do count, but you have to take into account far more than purely results. Pataudi captained India in an era where they were very poor, and he managed to give them some momentum and get a few wins under their belt. Results should not be the be all and end all when captaincy skills are considered. Fleming had a poorer record than Ponting in Tests, but you'll be lucky to find many that consider Ponting a finer captain than Fleming. Pataudi was a much better captain than Dhoni has been and probably ever will be.

Sachin Tendulkar too captained India in an era when he had ████ bowlers except Kumble and some extent Srinath. I get your point, but while making such lists, results do have a weightage.

 

[King Pietersen]

They do have a weightage, but they shouldn't be the be all and end all. Pataudi, is in mine and alot of people's eyes the finest ever Indian captain. Cricinfo > Precambrian

 

[King Cricket]

Pataudi, is in mine and alot of people's eyes the finest ever Indian captain.

As they say, "it takes all sorts of people to make up a world". In my eyes, it's Ganguly. Anyway, nothing to it, it's your personal opinion.

 

[Precambrian]

They do have a weightage, but they shouldn't be the be all and end all. Pataudi, is in mine and alot of people's eyes the finest ever Indian captain. Cricinfo > Precambrian

No, cricinfo is also made up of desktop analysts like u and me.

 

[King Pietersen]

Difference being that desktop analysts like the Cricinfo team and myself know what we're talking about . Me and Cricinfo > Precambrian.