Former England captain Nasser Hussian is reckoned as one of the most esteemed voices in world cricket. His opinions and perception of any game or a player get highly appraised by fans across the world. Naseer often spreads wisdom of the beautiful game in the most elegant way possible, and that’s the reason his point of views are taken seriously by cricket admirers.
From the likes of Sachin Tendulkar to Brian Lara, the Chennai-born ex-English cricketer has dropped his thoughts on various players. Now, his latest viewpoint is on the best captains of modern-day cricket. While speaking to veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz, Naseer picked his favourite captains from both limited-over and red-ball format.
In the white-ball cricket, Nasser went with England skipper Eoin Morgan. The cricketer-turned-commentator said one has to be calm and composed while captaining in the limited-over format and Morgan has all those qualities.
“Captaincy is about ticking so many different boxes. My best white-ball captain would be Eoin Morgan, not just because he won the World Cup, but he is calm, whenever there is chaos. White ball cricket is now chaos. The batsmen now smash everyone, everywhere. My favourite white-ball captain, the best white-ball captain would be Morgan,” said Nasser.
When it comes to Test cricket, Nasser heaped praises on India captain Virat Kohli and said the way he has driven India one could witness the change in the culture. Nasser also said that the credit of India’s winning mentality goes to Kohli, however, he still didn’t choose Kohli as his favourite captain in the longest format.
“In red-ball cricket, there are so many boxes to be ticked. I think the way Kohli has driven India, you know their fitness, change in culture, and their winning mentality is all down to Kohli,” added the 52-year-old.
For choosing the best captain of the oldest format of the game, Nasser went with New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson. He labelled Williamson as the ambassador of the game and extolled the Kiwi superstar for his method of handling the limited resources his team has.
“But if you’re asking me who is my favourite, and one of the reasons you give, ambassador of the game… Kane Williamson is just… for the resources New Zealand have, their record at home, I mean India found out recently, England found out, their record at home is phenomenal. Their record as a nation playing cricket is phenomenal,” Nasser added further.
“The image of Kane when he got to know after the World Cup final, you’re the player of the tournament and he turns to the ladies and the ICC and’ me ah’ that sort of self-depreciating ‘are you sure I’m the player of the tournament’. I think Kane Williamson, the way he handles himself, is a great ambassador of our game,” concluded the former Essex player.
