Cricket (Best Indian Cricket Captains), though not the national sport yet has the largest fanbase in India. Started by the British just in order to get some extra tax from the colonies of British India turned out to be their worst mistake ever, as we have been defeating them since then with the best teams that we’ve created.
From houseful stadiums to people wishing to create a new religion called cricket, why do you think that the sport has so many fans across the world? Why do people spend so much money to sit in the stadium and watch cricket? How was it able to overtake the trend of an Englishman’s game to a local’s game?
It’s just because of one thing, India has some of the best cricket teams in the world. We have seen teams after teams from international to home cricket they’ve received fame from all over. But do you know why they receive so much fame, it’s all because of that one person in the team and that is the team captain. India has some of the best cricket captains of all time, who have helped to not only make Indian teams world-famous but also almost into a religion. So let’s see who are the top 5 Indian Cricket Captains of all time.
Table of Contents
Kapil Dev
The fast bowler, hard-hitting middle ground batsman, greatest all-rounders and the best team captain Kapil dev has made it to all. Born in 1959, this man led India to win the third Cricket world cup title in 1983. He was named by Widsen as the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002.
He is known to be the highest wicket-taker in two of the major forms of cricket that are test series and ODI. He is also known to be the only cricketer in the world to have taken 400 wickets and more than 5000 runs. And thus in 2010, he was added to the ICC cricket hall of fame.
De is a right-arm fast-paced bowler with graceful actions and a potent swing bowler. He remained In’s only strike bowler for most of his career. He later learnt the inswinger style that is a type of ball delivery used by swing bowlers only. He was nicknamed the Haryana Hurricane and represented in domestic cricket as well. He has won the Arjuna award in 1979, Padma Shri in 1980, Padma Bhushan in 1991 and various other awards. A film on him is also being made featuring the historic win a Lords, named 83.
Shantha Rangaswamy
Born in 1954 this lady is the first-ever woman recipient of the Arjuna award, who has played 19 Women’s One-day Internationals and has also led to the team’s first-ever victory in 1976 in Women’s Test Cricket. She’s a right arm batter, and she was the 1st Indian woman cricketer who scored a century against New Zealand in the women’s world cup. In 2019 she became the first Indian female cricketer to have represented the Indian Cricketers association and also the BCCI Apex Council. She was also the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award for women by the BCCI.
Virat Kohli
This name needs no introduction right! Born in 1988, he’s the present captain of the Indian team. Kohli is called the best contemporary cricketer and he is a right top-order batsman. He plays for Royal Challengers in IPL and has been their captain since 2013. He is the top-ranked ODI batsman and also ranks in the 2nd position for Test Crickets in the world with 879 points. He even captained the under 19 World Cup and led them to victory in Malaysia in the year 2008.
He won the Arjuna award in 2013 and the Padma Shri in 2017 and The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award the highest sporting honour in 2018. He is also one of the world’s famous athletes according to ESPN.
He is an aggressive batsman with strong technical skills. He bats with a slightly open chest stance and a bottom hand grip and also has quick footwork. He is especially known for his ability to pace an innings, wide range of shots and batting under pressure. He’s also won the people’s choice awards for a favourite sportsperson in 2012.
Mithali Raj
Mithali Raj is no unfamiliar name. For those equals, she is an Indian cricketer who’s also the captain of the national women’s cricket team. She’s the right-handed opening bowler and an occasional right-arm break bowler. She’s the only woman to have the highest runs taken in International cricket and also crossed the 6000 run mark in Women’s one day International. She’s the first player from India to score 2000 runs in T20Is.
She has also been a recipient of various awards; won Padma Shri in 2015, the Arjuna award in 20003 and also the Wisden Leading Woman Cricketer in the World in 2017. She was appointed as the consultant for India’s women’s national cricket team and has played as a player-coach. She is nicknamed the “Lady Tendulkar of the Indian Women’s cricket”. She holds the record for the most consecutive Women’s One-day Internationals for a team.
MS Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni isn’t anymore just a name, it’s an emotion. He is a former International cricketer and captained the National Cricket team in limited-overs from 2007 to 2016 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He’s a right-handed middle-order batsman and wicket-keeper, he’s known as the highest run taker in the One Day Internationals with more than 10,000 runs in his account and is also known as an effective ‘finisher’ in limited over formats. He is regarded as the greatest wicket keepers and captains in the history of the game. Under Dhoni’s captaincy, India won the 2011 World Cup.
He first appeared as the lower order attacking batsman, but later changed after growing pressure and after he became the captain of the team. He uses the helicopter shots and also is one of the fastest men running in between wickets. He holds the world record for the highest stumpings by a wicketkeeper in the world. Under his captaincy, India topped the Test Cricket rankings in 2009. He has won Padma Bhusan in 2018, Padma Shri in 2009, and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna in 2007, which are some of the highest national honours. Other than these he’s also won sports and
Other honours too. How many of us can deny the fact that we haven’t seen the biopic called MS Dhoni, an untold story? None of us can deny right that’s how famous he is. He played for the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
Conclusion
As we come to the conclusion, I need to write about something that struck and it’s the fact that when I write about the top 5 captains of Indian Cricket teams of all time, I see the names of only men in there ain’t that sad. Women are still being excluded from the very sense of it. Until and unless it’s written as Top 5 captains of Indian women’s cricket team of all time, their names don’t appear. Why is it like this? Why do we talk so much about equality and still do the same? Why can’t we end this injustice starting from the search engines themselves?
I hadn’t written as Top 5 captains of Indian men’s cricket teams then why did it only showmen, just because you think women haven’t scored much, and whenever thoughts like this cross your mind remember that we haven’t given women their due recognition for the country when we had to, we haven’t supported them as much as we support me, isn’t it the time o rewind and take a look.
Mithali Raj is seen in no.1 as one of the top 5 rankers of being a captain in the women’s national cricket team. Yes, she is really a gem for India and more will come our way. It’s just that it’s high time that we acknowledge the ladies in our group who play and win laurels in the world as men do. We need to start encouraging them as we do for men. Anyway, as we now have known who were some of the top 5 Indian Cricket team Captains of all time, we need to know that the game ain’t as easy as it looks but they have gone against the winds and proved their worth.
They’re not just examples for the country but also assets for the country, who make us proud every day with their skills and their game. Lord’s is called the Mecca of cricket but with these captains, we can turn over the saying to turn India into the Mecca of cricket.
