Former India opener Gautam Gambhir made his debut when Sourav Ganguly was the Indian captain. He also played under Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and then won two World Cups – 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup – under MS Dhoni. He made his comeback to the Indian Test side when young Virat Kohli was at the helm. In an international career spanning more than 13 years, Gambhir has played with some of India’s finest and most successful captains. It, therefore, should have a herculean task to choose one among all of them. But known for having a crystal-clear thought-process, Gambhir had no hesitation in picking the best captain he has played under.

The left-hander, who announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in December 2018, picked legendary Indian spinner Anil Kumble as the best captain.

“Yes MS Dhoni in records point of view, right up there but yes, for me the best captain I’ve played under is Anil Kumble,” said Gambhir in Star Sports show Cricket Connected.

Gambhir said Kumble would have broken all the records had he captained India for a longer period of time.

“Sourav (Ganguly) has done really well. One captain that I would have definitely wanted to captain India for a long time is Anil Kumble. I played six Test matches under him probably; he didn’t captain India for that long. Had he captained India for a long time, he would have broken a lot of records,” added Gambhir, who indeed played six Test matches under Kumble and is himself a very successful IPL captain with two titles for Kolkata Knight Riders to show for.

Kumble was made the Indian Test captain in the 17th year of his international career when Rahul Dravid stood down in November 2007. MS Dhoni was India’s ODI and T20I captain then and it was deemed too early to hand him the realms of the Test team.

Kumble, who is India’s leading wicket-taker in both Tests (619) and ODIs (337) led India for 14 Test matches before announcing his retirement mid-way through Australia’s tour of India in 2008. Under him, India won three Tests, drew five and lost six.

After his retirement, Dhoni took over as the captain of India all three formats.