In every cricket match, the role of captainship is as essential as the role of every player in the game; without proper captainship, the cricket team would not be able to perform at its full potential. Captains; play a vital and significant role in the team’s performance. It; is necessary for them to be clear about the situation, and make decision accordingly. They need to be courageous and optimistic to motivate and to lead the team. In the history of cricket, we have seen many great captains who changed the course of many matches. So; let’s take a look at some great captains:-
1. M.S Dhoni
M.S Dhoni was born on 7 July 1981 and started his career in December 2004. Dhoni became a captain in 2007 in World Cup; he captained the team for the longer format from 2008 to 2014 and limited overs from 2007 to 2011. His batting and wicket-keeping talent led the Indian team to many victories. Dhoni became the only man to win ICC Champions Trophy 2013, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, and ICC Twenty20 2007 as the captain.
2. Ricky Ponting
Ricky Thomas Ponting was born on 19 December 1974 in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. He started his career in 1995 and became the captain of the Australian team in 2002. Ponting was the captain of the Australian team from 2004 to 2011 in test cricket and from 2002 to 2011 in ODIs; it was the golden era for the Australian team. He is considered one of the best captains of the cricket team as he led his team to 220 victories in 324 matches with a winning rate of 67.91%. Ricky Ponting has led Australia to victory of the 2003 World Cup and the 2007 World Cup.
3. Allan Border
Allan Border was born on 27 July 1955 in Cremorne, Sydney. He is a former Australian cricketer and captain who started his career in first-class cricket in 1977 and played his first test match in 1978-79 in Melbourne. He became the highest run-scorer in the history of test matches, and had scored 11,174 runs in his career. He became the captain of the Australian team in the season of 1984-85, and the led Australian team in the World Cup and gained victory over England.
4. Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli was born on 8 November 1988 in New Delhi. Kohli started his career at 18 in November 2006 for Delhi against Tamil Nadu. Kohli took captainship for the first time in a test match in Australia as Dhoni suffered from an injury; after the first match, Dhoni returned to the team as captain. Kohli was the first Indian batsman to score a century against Pakistan in World Cup. Kohli became the captain of India in the ICC tournament for the first time in 2017, and India reached to final but lost the match to Pakistan. Kohli announced that he would step down from captaincy in September 2021.
5. Sourav Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly was born in Calcutta on 8 July 1972. He started his career in the test match between India, Australia, and West Indies and started his ODI career in 1992 against Brian Lara side at Gabba. In; 2000, Ganguly became captain of the Indian cricket team, after Sachin Tendulkar stepped down from this position due to his health issues. In 2003, under Sourav’s captaincy, India reached the World Cup final for the first time since 1983 but lost to Australia.
6. Clive Lloyd
Clive Lloyd was born on 31 August 1944 in Georgetown, British Guiana. He started his career on 13 December 1966 in a test match against India. He captained the team West Indies from 1974 to 1985 and became one of the most successful captains all time till this date. Lloyd has led West Indies in three world cups in which they won in1975 and 1979 but finally got defeated in 1983 by India. He was awarded for his services in the 2020 New Year Honors.
7. Misbah Ul Haq
Misbah-Ul-Haq Khan Niazi was born on 28 May 1974 in Mianwali, Pakistan. He is a former cricketer and captain of the team Pakistan. He started his career at the age of 24 in 1998. He got the role of acting captain for an ODI because of the injury of Shoaib Malik. In October 2010, he got the role of captain of the team for the test series against South Africa in UAE. Pakistan achieved the number 1 ranking under the captaincy of Misbah in August 2016. In 56 test matches, Misbah has led Pakistan in which they won 26 test matches, lost 19 matches with 11 draws, and Misbah was named the most successful test captain.
8. Arjuna Ranatunga
Deshamanya Arjuna Ranataunga is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and captain of the Sri Lankan team. He was born on 1 December 1963 and made his test debut at the age of 18 on 17 February 1982 against England in Sri Lanka’s first ever test match. Arjuna took captaincy of Sri Lanka and led the team for the next 11 years, transforming the weak team into a victorious one. He scored winning runs and led the team to win the World Cup in 1996. He remained unbeaten in the match of the World Cup.
9. Imran Khan
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi was born on 5 October 1952 in Lahore. He made his debut in cricket against England in June 1971 at 16 in Lahore, and after three years he debuted in an ODI match again against England for Prudential Trophy. At; the age of 30, Imran took the captaincy of Pakistan and played 48 test matches, in which they won 14 matches, lost 8 matches, and drew the remaining matches. He also played in ODI Matches, in which he won 77 games, lost 57 games and has one draw. Imran’s captaincy career peaked when he led Pakistan to victory in the Cricket World Cup 1992.
10. Stephen Fleming
Stephen Fleming is one of the finest cricket captains of New Zealand. He was born on 1 April 1973 and started his career in March 1994 at Hamilton in the match against India. Fleming became the youngest captain in the history of New Zealand, and his age was only 23 years old. He was the captain of the team for a decade and made the team achieve its full potential.
These are some very successful captains in the history of cricket.
