IPL 2011: The 'King of Comebacks' Sourav Ganguly returns !!

Ok, I just couldn’t think of a better title, and I don’t think anything is more apt. This title just represents the feeling I along with the thousand of Saurav Ganguly fans have. So, he is back! Thanks to the Sahara franchise, Ganguly has signed with them as a replacement to injured fast bowler Ashish Nehra. Saurav Ganguly will now play for the Pune Warriors India for the rest of IPL 4.

You are so gonna regret this .

THANKS TO ASHISH NEHRA

Ashish Nehra, who is still injured after picking up the injury in the World Cup semi finals, will soon become the most thanked man in India, atleast among the Dada fans. If his redemption for how he bowled against South Africa in the World Cup, wasn’t over with how he performed in the semi-finals, it certainly and most definitely over now. He has given the opportunity for Dada to return, and as he is the king of comebacks, I expect a great comeback in the IPL.

Thank You Ashish !

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR PWI?

Abhijit Sarkar, the director of Pune Warriors has been quoted as saying, “We were waiting for Ashish Nehra’s fitness report and ultimately the report came yesterday. I was already in talks with Ganguly and we decided that the amount of experience that Sourav has in cricket will no doubt help the team. So we finalised Ganguly last night.” The Pune franchise, which has now lost 6 matches on the trot, will be greatly lifted with the southpaw’s presence in the batting order. Add to it the amount of experience this guy has. He will be playing the role of vice-captain to Yuvraj Singh, and we can expect to see him running around the ground making suggestions to Yuvi, and helping the team out by giving them his all, as he has always done. He is most likely to be back for the May 4th clash against Mumbai Indians, against his old opening partener, Sachin Tendulkar. This move by the PWI is also expected to get a huge base for the team, who hasn’t got the same kind of support the other new franchise Kochi Tuskers Kerala have got. Earlier this season, KTK did try to sign the stylish batsman, but the IPL rules didn’t allow them to do so. Ganguly’s contract is for a period of one year and is an IPL lifeline to the batsman after he went unsold at the player auction in January, where his base price was $400,000.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR KKR?

As we all know, Ganguly played for Kolkata Knight Riders in the first three seasons of the IPL and led the team in two of them, while Brendon McCullum was captain for the other. Kolkata fared poorly in those years and are the only franchise not to make the semi-finals. Kolkata did not bid for Ganguly in January despite his name coming up for sale twice, as they revamped their squad entirely, and the batsman later refused a mentoring role with the franchise. With KKR scheduled to meet PWI at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on May 19th, nothing short of a firechracker will be expected, with Ganguly playing against his former franchise.

Dada is back, and he will be hoping to make an awesome comeback, to silence his critics once again and to show the other franchises why he deserved to be sold. Expect a great display for him. After all, he is the King of Comebacks.