Indians have witnessed some terrific moments in cricket in the past 20 years. It all started after the 2000 fixing scandal where some of the renowned cricketers became the reason for people losing faith in Indian cricket. The Prince of Kolkata Sourav Ganguly was handed over the captaincy for the first time and he brought back the emotions, faith and honesty in Indian cricket. The team started winning overseas, won some of the historic games that no one thought of, including NatWest Series, Champions Trophy, series in Pakistan and matches in Australia and New Zealand as well. Today let us take you to the three fantastic duo that completely changed the phase of Indian cricket in their own style. Here they are:

Ganguly-Wright

As discussed above, Dada completely changed the mindset of playing cricket for India. His aggression while facing the big teams was out of the world. The opponent started taking the back seat during those times. But there was another reason behind that success in the form of Indian coach John Wright. His technique of preparing Indian players was totally different compared to what the previous coaches used to do. He spent a lot of time on the fielding practice as Indian players were called slow fielders. Indian fielding and slip catching took a great turn afterwards. The whole of India tasted numerous successes during those 5-6 years including NatWest victory, series victory in Pakistan, Champions Trophy and World Cup Final to name a few. The drawn series in Australia was still amongst the best under the leadership of Ganguly.

Dhoni-Kirsten

Mahendra Singh Dhoni, widely known as one of the best captains of all time in world cricket, took charge of the team in 2007 and immediately helped India won the inaugural T20 World Cup. Just after that huge moment, India got one of the best coaches of all time, Gary Kirsten, who did some miracles together with MS Dhoni. The biggest reason behind their success is that this duo was composed in almost every situation. They took some phenomenal decisions at times that went in their favour. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar once said that he got a friend in the form of a coach who just says to express yourself to the fullest and enjoy the game. There were no pressures from behind and this is the reason that this partnership did wonders for India. April 2, 2011, is still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Kohli-Shastri

Virat Kohli’s style of captaining is way different from what Ganguly and Dhoni used to do. He likes being aggressive on the field with his fielding positions. The team’s present coach Ravi Shastri is himself a legend of the game who shares a great bond with the skipper. Some say that their victories are because of the average players around these days or because of having some big names already in the team. But very few can understand that they are playing really well as a team. Shastri has been a phenomenal motivational speaker for his side that must have helped the players so far. The biggest strength of this pair is that they want their players to be 100% fit like their leader. Fitness under Kohli and Shastri has become the major part to remain in the team.

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