Ashish Nehra rates Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni as the greatest captains for India after 2000. (Source: AP)

Asked to rate who the best Indian captain of all time is, Ashish Nehra talked at length about the leadership styles of Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni, adding that current skipper Virat Kohli often takes impulsive decisions on the field and his captaincy is still a ‘work in progress’.

Speaking with Aakash Chopra on his Youtube channel, the former India fast bowler said people often tend to forget great captains of the past like Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev and Mohammed Azharuddin, but that he can speak about Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni because he has played the most under them.

“Both knew how to get the best out of their players. Ganguly had the challenge of creating a new team while Dhoni had a great coach like Gary Kirsten and he had a team that was ready. His challenge was to lead so many senior players,” Nehra said.

“The good thing about Dada (Ganguly) was that he would mark the players he knew he had to back and he would go to the extent of fighting with the selectors and speaking to the president to back them.

“Dhoni was a very calculating captain. He wasn’t impulsive and stayed calm. He gave opportunities to youngsters. There is a perception that Dhoni kept to himself but this was not the case. Dhoni’s room always used to remain open at night to everyone and we could spend hours discussing cricket. Of course, his way of talking to a 19-year-old and a 32-year-old were different.”

Asked to speak on Kohli, on whom Nehra said he played under for too short a time to compare them with Ganguly and Dhoni, said, “Kohli’s captaincy is still a work in progress. He is often seen taking rash, impulsive decisions on the field.”