Sourav Ganguly: The innings of his career.

Personal Information-

Full Name: Sourav Chandidas Ganguly

Born : 8^th July 1972, Calcutta , West Bengal India.

Nickname: Dada, Prince of Calcutta, God of off-side.

Born into a rich family Dada was introduced into the world of cricket by his elder brother Snehasish and since then there has been no looking back. Making his ODI debut back in January 1992 vs West Indies Dada has remained an integral part of the Indian team for over a decade.

In his debut against West Indies he was able to score only 3 runs and was dropped from the team since he was perceived to be arrogant.Dada’s major break was while playing for India against England where he scored 131 at Lords(among a few to do so on a debut at Lords)and cemented his place in the squad. After successful performances against Srilanka, Pakistan and Australia and winning a couple of ‘ Man of the Match’ there he assured his place in the ‘playing 11’.

After starting as an opening pair in Bloemfontein – 23rd January 1997 Sachin and Saurav have been the most successful opening pair for India upto now. They have had over 20 century partnerships for the first wicket the highest being 258 vs Kenya. They had been the most feared opening pair for India before Sehwag and Gambhir.

Achievements:

• Wisden ranked him the sixth greatest ODI player after V. Richards, sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Beaven.
• In the 1999 World Cup, he was involved in a partnership of 318 runs with Rahul Dravid which remains the highest overall partnership score in World Cup history.
• He was awarded Padma Shri in 2004, one of the highest Indian awards.
• In the Sahara Cup 1997, Saurav Ganguly set a new World Record for 5 consecutive Man of the Match Awards.
• Ganguly is the fastest to reach 7000, 8000 and 9000 runs in OD cricket.
• Ganguly made a scintillating 141 when India successfully chased 314 runs for victory against Pakistan in Dhaka. This was a world record chase at the time.
• Saurav Ganguly has the distinction of being one of the few players in the World to Score a century and take 4 wickets in the same match. (ODIs)

In 2000 Ganguly was made the captain of Indian team. Under his Captaincy the Indian Cricket team reached the finals of the World Cup Cricket 2003, where Australia beat India to win the championship. During the year 2000-2005, he led the Indian Test Cricket team to 49 matches, out of which 21 were won by the team. He also led the Indian team to 146 One Day International (ODI) Cricket matches, out of which 76 were won by the team. Soon Ganguly was conferred upon the title of ‘India’s most successful Captain.’

Achievements as Indian Captain:

• Most number of Test victories as India captain.
• India’s captain in most number of Tests
• First Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan

Due to his bad performances and his dispute with the then coach Greig Chappel he was dropped as the India captain and consequently from the team. Following India’s poor batting display in ICC Champions Trophy in 2006 and the ODI series in South Africa Ganguly made his comeback to the test team. He played some brilliant knocks few turning out to be match winning. Ganguly remained prolific in both Test and ODI cricket in the year 2007. He scored 1106 Test runs at an average of 61.44 (with three centuries and four fifties) in 2007 to become the second highest run-scorer in Test matches of that year after Jaques Kallis.

Due to his bad luck or politics (whatever may be the reason) he was not given the due respect which he deserved. So he announced his official retirement from test cricket on November 2008, where he played his last match against Australia. Not in action anymore still Saurav Ganguly will remain alive in the hearts of the cricket fans for his brilliant knocks and his success as the Indian captain.