Commentator, Cricket Pundit and the former English captain Nasser Hussain featured recently in a conversation with the voice of cricket Harsha Bhogle on cricbuzz lockdown special live series. Known for his ability to analyse players, he speaks out his opinions loud and clear with conviction.
During that conversation he was asked to pick up the best captains in limited-overs and Tests. India captain Virat Kohli who recently became the most successful test captain for his national team, however, did not find place in the list of Nasser Hussain.
Nasser Hussain picked England captain Eoin Morgan as the best in limited-overs due to his brilliance in the 2019 World Cup. At home, where the English side had the best chance to clinch the trophy, the Eoin Morgan-led side held their nerves to win the final in a rather unconvincing fashion over New Zealand. England were declared the winners of the 2019 World Cup on the basis of superior boundary counts after a tied super over.
Morgan has been widely regarded for changing the way England looked at white ball cricket. After a humiliating exit from the 2015 World Cup, the then captain Andrew Strauss, coach Trevor Bayliss and the then future captain Eoin Morgan set out to change the English batting culture in white ball. Morgan gave his batsman freedom to express themselves and to play aggressively.
“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,” he said while speaking to Cricbuzz.
India were cruising along in the world test championship remaining undefeated until the Kiwi challenge came up. Williamson led Kiwi’s whitewashed India 2-0 to end India’s invincible run. Known as the modern day ambassador to the gentleman’s game, he has been instrumental in the recent success of New Zealand cricket team despite them possessing an average team. These were the reasons why Nasser Hussain picked Williamson over Kohli as his best test captain.
“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.”
“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,”
Virat Kohli was appreciated for his captaincy in red-ball cricket but Hussain reckoned Williamson ticked all the boxes and thus picked him ahead of the Indian.