On a micro level, however, the two skippers could not be more different. Ganguly was hard, in-your-face, loud and audacious. Dhoni is cool, calm, and in control of not just his side but also his own conduct. There will never be any public display of shirt-twirling from him. Ganguly was a soldier who rose through the ranks by running at the enemy with everything he had, and by getting there first. Dhoni was born to be a general.

It is strange how they both assumed roles that went against the stereotype of their social class when it came to captaining the side. Ganguly did not lead like the prince he was made out to be, Dhoni does not lead like the simpleton from Jharkhand he was projected as. In fact, Dhoni’s captaincy is what you would have expected Ganguly’s to be and the rich Bengali boy from Kolkata led somewhat like a small-town boy from Ranchi.

Rahul Dravid, in contrast, could never break out of his own trappings when he was captain. Young players complained that they didn’t quite connect with him — especially during the World Cup campaign in the Caribbean — and that took its toll on him. There was some success in the West Indies and England but, even in the euphoria of those victories, Dravid’s captaincy didn’t become a topic of discussion.

Between Ganguly and Dhoni, it would be hard to pick a winner on current evidence. We know of Ganguly’s slide, we have seen it happen right before our eyes. Dhoni hasn’t slipped yet, so he will naturally seem the front-runner in this battle of the leaders. But there is no denying any more that he is the best man for the job at the moment, and that his vision for India’s one-day team can no longer be dismissed outright by anybody. When Dhoni dropped Ganguly and Dravid for the Australia tri-series, there were several of us who felt he had overplayed his hand. But he has gone and cleaned out the whole table.

... contd.