The Indian cricket has touched new heights in past some years. They won their first-ever World Cup in 1983 while lifted the second in 2011 under Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni respectively. There have also been a number of leaders right from the beginning who have played their respective roles in taking the game forward.
But there are six Indian captains who saw and helped Indian cricket in many ways.
Col. CK Nayudu
India’s first-ever captain was Col. CK Nayudu who led the side Test cricket. This was against England in 1932 at Lord’s. Nayudu played 7 Tests for the country where he scored 350 runs.
Today in 1932 India became 6th nation to play Test Cricket when CK Nayudu’s team was against England team at Lord’s pic.twitter.com/zgtvlN35kx
— Mumbai Heritage (@mumbaiheritage) June 25, 2016
But he was a massive name in the First-Class cricket. Being a part of Andhra, Central India, Central Provinces and Berar, Hindus, Holkar, Hyderabad (India), Rajputana, United Province, he played a total of 207 matches scoring over 11000 runs at an average of just under 36.
Lala Amarnath
Lala Amarnath was the first captain of the independent India. He led the side that toured Australia in 1947-1948. He also captained India in the first Test series against Pakistan in 1952. Also, Amarnath scored the first Test century for India.
Aggressive field placement by Lala Amarnath in 1952 Bombay Test vs Pakistan. Batsman is Hanif Mohd#cricket #mumbai pic.twitter.com/uQpm587YP9
— Mumbai Heritage (@mumbaiheritage) June 11, 2014
In 24 Test matches for India, Lala scored 878 runsand scored a ton while played 186 First-Class matches and notched up over 1000 runs.
Vijay Hazare
While India had played the first Test almost two decades back, they were still searching for their first Test win that came in 1952 against England in Madras under the captaincy of Vijay Hazare.
England scored 266 in the first innings while India took the lead and posted 457/9 (D). Later, England were bundled out for 183 in the second innings handing India a win by an innings and 8 runs.
Hazare played 30 Tests for India scoring 2192 runs at an average of 47.65. In First-Class cricket, he played 238 matches and scored 18740 runs. He also scalped 595 wickets at the First-class level.
Kapil Dev
India were playing their first-ever World Cup final against West Indies in 1983.
This Day That Year: India lift World Cup 1983
The team had been bundled out for 183 and the defending champions looked firm favourites when the Kapil-Dev led side decided to turn the fortunes for themselves. They not only defended the total but also lifted the cup.
Sourav Ganguly
When the captaincy was handed over to Soyrav Ganguly, the Indian cricket was plagued with match-fixing scandal. The team was on a rejig mode. This was the time when Ganguly stepped in and gave a new shape to the team and to Indian cricket.
India finished as runners-up in 2000 Knockout tournament and 2003 World Cup respectively while won the NatWest trophy in 2002 and Test series in Pakistan. In fact, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan made their debuts under Ganguly.
MS Dhoni
MS Dhoni’s story is also a bit similar. Though, India wasn’t struggling the way they did when Ganguly came in as the leader but were facing a lot of backlash after being eliminated from the first round itself in the World Cup 2007.
The inaugural World T20 was also scheduled to take place in the same year later on in South Africa and Dhoni was given the baton after the senior players decided to drop out of the tournament. He led India to the win and a lot changed in Indian cricket after that.
They won the CB series in Australia in 2008 while lifted the World Cup in 2011 and Champions Trophy in 2013 respectively. India also attained the top spot in Test cricket under him.
