Mohammad Kaif was walking back with the stumps in his hands after winning the 2002 Natwest Trophy at Lord’s when, out of nowhere, Sourav Ganguly jumped on him for a bone-crushing hug. It was a spontaneous gesture that summed up what his new, young team was going to achieve over the next two years.

On Tuesday at Brisbane, while Harbhajan Singh was regaling the crowd like a WWE wrestler just walking into the ring for a championship bout, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was calmly collecting his troops for a huddle. It was only when Yuvraj Singh leapt on him that Dhoni was forced to break into a smile.

The Indian one-day series victory in Australia — already being compared with the World Series triumph of 1985 —- could be dissected to reveal a plethora of heroes. There is young Ishant Sharma, evergreen Sachin Tendulkar, elegant Rohit Sharma and surly Gautam Gambhir. But, rising above them, usually one step behind, is the dominating figure of Dhoni.

This past year will always be remembered in Indian cricket history: for the disaster in the World Cup, the shock win in the Twenty20 championship, and for the sweetest of ends to a bitter series in Australia. Along with all that, it will be remembered as the time when Dhoni broke all norms of traditional decency. This is “my” team, he proudly proclaimed, and went on to stamp his individuality on a hand-picked bunch of winners.

At a macro level, Dhoni is very similar to Ganguly. They both fought for their players, they both defied the age-old law of parochialism, they were both sources of inspiration to a burgeoning new India, and the secret to the success of both lay as much in their handling of people off the field as of situations on it.

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.

Every leader falls eventually when he bites off more than he can chew. Dhoni’s time will come as well. For now, it seems that moment is far away.

kunal.pradhan@expressindia.com