Sourav Ganguly made his international debut against
in
of
1992. He didn't score much and was dropped from further matches. Four years
later, following a good domestic record, he was recalled into the national side
for a Test series against
in
made his Test debut at Lords, with a century in that match and repeated the
feat in the match which followed. He was retained for the One day team and he
went on become a regular in both forms of the game. One of his most memorable
performance was in the final of the
cup at
when the entire
team walked back in stating bad light along with the umpires, but Ganguly
refused to come in. Ganguly scored 124 in that match in darkness, while
Hrishikesh Kanitkar scored the winning runs with a boundary.
I remember that match very well as I had some xam tat day
and after coming out of the xam hall ,I asked my father “how is saurav batting?”
for which I got nicely from him.
Some felt he couldn't play the bouncer, others swore that he
was God on the off-side; some laughed at his lack of athleticism, others took
immense pride in his ability to galvanise a side. Sourav Ganguly's ability to
polarise opinion led to one of the most fascinating dramas in Indian cricket.
Yet, nobody can dispute that he was India's most successful Test captain -
forging a winning unit from a bunch of talented, but directionless, individuals
- and nobody can argue about him being one of the greatest one-day batsmen of
all time. Despite being a batsman who combined grace with surgical precision in
his strokeplay, his career had spluttered to a standstill before being
resurrected by a scintillating hundred on debut at Lord's in 1996. Later that
year, he was promoted to the top of the order in ODIs and, along with Sachin
Tendulkar, formed one of the most destructive opening pairs in history.
When he took over the captaincy after the match-fixing
exposes in 2000, he quickly proved to be a tough, intuitive and uncompromising
leader. Under his stewardship
started winning Test matches away, and put together a splendid streak that took
them all the way to the World Cup final in 2003. Later that year, in
an unexpected and incandescent hundred at
set the tone for the series - Steve Waugh's last - where
fought the world's best team to a standstill. Victory in
turned him into a cult figure but instead of being a springboard for greater
things, it was the peak of a slippery slope.
The beginning of the end came in 2004 at
- when his last-minute withdrawal played a part in
clinching the series - and things went pear shaped when his loss of personal
form coincided with
insipid ODI performances. Breaking point was reached when his differences with
Greg Chappell leaked into public domain and his career was in jeopardy when
began their remarkable revival under Rahul Dravid. His gritty 30s at
when
succumbed to a humiliating defeat in early 2006, weren't enough for him to
retain his spot and some felt he would never get another chance. Others, as
always, thought otherwise and they were proved right when he was included in
the Test squad for the away series in
in 2006-2007. He ended as the highest Indian run-scorer in that series and
capped his fairytale comeback with a four fifties on his return to ODIs.
There is no other Indian player who can match the aggressiveness
of Saurav in terms of playing style and captaincy. By far
best captain is without doubt SAURAV GANGULY.
It was Saurav who groomed Sehwag,Yuvraj,Kaif,Zaheer and
Harbhajan.They r at this level due to constant support from Saurav.
The only saving grace of this world cup 2007 for
is our DADA.
Nobody can match the style with which he steps down the
track and loft the ball over the ropes.Most of the time the balls r lost.
Hope to see DADA atleast till 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment