Ambati Rayudu recently gave his personal ranking of India’s best captains across all formats, from one to six.
In a video on ESPNcricinfo, Rayudu ranked famous captains like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Rohit Sharma, Kapil Dev and Mohammad Azharuddin.
Rayudu predictably put Dhoni at number one, citing his three ICC titles as captain. Dhoni is the only Indian captain to have won all three ICC white-ball tournaments: 2007 T20 World Cup, 2011 ODI World Cup and 2013 Champions Trophy.
Rayudu had already ranked the other five captains before naming Dhoni. He kept Ganguly at number three, followed by Kapil at number four, who led India to their first World Cup win in 1983.
When Rohit’s turn came, Rayudu paused for a second before putting him at number two. Next was Kohli, India’s most successful Test captain. Rayudu said if Test cricket was the only thing that mattered, Kohli would be in the top two. But he decided to rank him fifth since it was a list for all formats.
Azharuddin was next and Rayudu quickly put him at number six.
Only the top spot was left and it was obvious it was going to be MS Dhoni for Rayudu. He gave the number one spot to his former CSK and Indian team captain with a smile. The two have been associated for a long time, especially at CSK and Rayudu often speaks highly of Dhoni.
India played 332 matches under Dhoni’s captaincy in all formats and won 178, lost 120 and drew 15.
One of India’s biggest achievements under Dhoni’s leadership was a whitewash against Australia in the 2012/13 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Ambati Rayudu’s final ranking: (1) MS Dhoni, (2) Rohit Sharma, (3) Sourav Ganguly, (4) Kapil Dev, (5) Virat Kohli, (6) Mohammad Azharuddin.