Don't believe Tendulkar wasn't a good captain: Madan Lal

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Don't believe Tendulkar wasn't a good captain: Madan Lal

Last Updated : 19 Jun 2020 03:07:57 PM IST

Sachin Tendulkar-Madan Lal (file pic)

Former India cricketer Madan Lal has spoken about Sachin Tendulkar's brief stint as captain and stated the legendary batsman was a good leader of the side.

Sachin captained India in 73 ODIs and 25 Tests between 1996 to 2000. Under his leadership, India won 23 ODIs and lost 43 while in the longest format, they won 4 Tests and lost 9.

"I won't agree with you that he was not a great captain. But he was so involved in his own performance, he found it difficult to take care of the team," Lal told Sportskeeda during a Facebook live session.

"Because as a captain you not only need to take care of your performance, but also get the best performance from the other 10 players. It is critical how you manage them.

"Sachin had a very good quality of reading the game and telling the players where they were going wrong or how to bowl.

"He was superb in all these things. But it happens sometimes, that you give so much attention to your game that your difficulties compound. It was not that he was not a good captain," he added.

Lal also lifted the lid on how former India captain Sourav Ganguly was struggling in the middle order in his initial days and after he was promoted to open the innings, things changed for the good for the southpaw.

"We wanted to utilise Dada. I don't know if he remembers or not. I told him ‘Dada, nothing will happen batting at no. 5. You should directly open', Lal said.

"Every player has his own style. Ganguly had all the strokes. Every batsman needs some time to settle in. If you play out a few overs with just one-two runs, because you need to get set to the conditions.

"Even today, batsmen like Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane take some time.

"So, I told him, he was like ‘okay'. And then he never looked back. Sachin and Sourav's partnership has been really popular for India - the two won a lot of matches for India.

"I was a coach at the time. I vaguely remember I might have told him this during the Sri Lanka tour," he added.