Sourav Ganguly revealed, Virender Sehwag taught him the important lesson of captaincy

By: Jeet Ghosh
Last Update: 2021-04-04 10:19:30 IST
Former Indian captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly recalled memories of the opening lessons of his captaincy on Saturday. It also includes an event with Virender Sehwag in the 2003 NatWest Trophy final.
The former Indian captain is known for giving a new direction to Indian cricket. Ganguly had instilled a passion for playing matches with aggression on foreign soil. The former captain said on Saturday that he got the biggest lesson from his teammate Virender Sehwag while captaining him.
Former Indian captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly recalled memories of the opening lessons of his captaincy on Saturday. It also includes an event with Virender Sehwag in the 2003 NatWest Trophy final. He told how Sehwag, one of the explosive openers from India, changed Ganguly's thinking.
On a YouTube chat, Ganguly said, 'We were chasing 325 in that final. When we were going to start the innings I was very disappointed and upset, but Sehwag said that we will win. We got off to a good start (82 runs in 12 overs) and I told them that we have been playing new ball bowlers from the beginning. So he should not lose his wicket and focus on a single, but Ronnie Irani came in to put his first over and Sehwag hit a four off his first ball.
"I went to him and said that we had found a boundary. Now we should take singles, but they did not listen and hit a four off the second ball as well. He also sent the third ball for four runs. I was very angry. After that, he hit another four off the fifth ball as well."
Ganguly further said that, he soon realized that there was no point in stopping Sehwag as his natural game was aggressive. Describing individual management as the key factor of captaincy, he said, "A good captain needs to adjust the player's thinking."