File image of Zaheer Khan
Former India pacer Zaheer Khan on Thursday drew comparisons between the captaincy of MS Dhoni and Sourav Ganguly. Zaheer has been among the few Indians who have worked under both these successful skippers. While he began his career under Ganguly, he became a star under the leadership of Dhoni.
Zaheer feels that both the captains backed youngsters immensely.
"Absolutely, that's what you need at that stage of your career (push from Ganguly). When you're starting your careers at the international level, you need all the support you can and then it will be upto you to shape your career. But that initial support is very vital," Zaheer Khan told Gaurav Kapur in a YouTube chat show.
"Both of them have led India for a long time. With MS (Dhoni), I have seen that change as well. When MS got the team, he had a lot of senior players who were experienced at the international level. So he didn't have to do much in terms of getting them up to speed. But once all those guys started retiring, when the young batch came in, he played a similar kind of role, did similar kind of things to what Dada was doing with the young lot.
"In Indian cricket, every decade the captain has passed baton to the next in line and the person who has taken the baton has led to the team to the next level," Zaheer added.
Zaheer played 92 Tests and 197 ODIs for India taking 311 and 282 wickets respectively. He also appeared in 17 T20Is taking 17 wickets. He retired in 2015.
