Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dare to believe that there is something within them superior to the circumstance. Sourav Ganguly definetly the best ever Indian captain. Sourav is surely the one and the only DADA for the captain’s throne. But does he deserve a place in the playing eleven just because he is a great captain?
Sourav Ganguly made his debut against Australia in Australia in a series where India was humiliated by a 3-0 loss to the ever mighty world champions. Ganguly was dropped from the Indian side, though he was given just two one-dayers to prove his mettle. After 3 years Ganguly comes back to international cricket with a bang scoring 3 back to back centuries in his first 2 test matches, a feat performed by the then Indian captain Mohmd Azharuddin. This marked Ganguly’s presence in International cricket. At that point in time, Ganguly was slated to be a good test cricketer, but the reverse happened. He began to open in the ODI format of the game with the little master Sachin Tendulkar and the combo proved deadly over a long period of time.
Ganguly slowly and steadily started gaining respect in his team and with the opponents. His off side batting was remarkable to watch. The replay of his off drive could be seen for epochs.
After Sachin’s poor stint captaincy, Ganguly the next senior most member in the team was offered the post. The guts and passion for the game made him accept the job offered. He built the team India with the right mix of youth and experience. He brought in the likes of Yuvraj and kaifs and Sehawag into the team.
But as his captaincy was on the ascendency, his batting was on the descend. A cricketer whose off-drive was a treat to watch has aroused huge speculation about his batting. He has had his problems with the short ball, running between the wickets and balls pitched outside the off stump. All these problems are not recent but have been primary over a long period of time. It is just over the last couple of years that opponents including Zimbabwe have started to exploit this weakness. With rigorous practise and a better technique at batting, ganguly can still be back in the reckoning of the top batsmen in the world.
Adding to his zestless batting is his ban for 5 ODI for slow over-rate. This is a nice lay off for Ganguly to recoop his lost form and to come back with flying colors. Lets wish this batsmen who is very close to reaching 10000 runs in ODI, all the very best and may he win more matches for INDIA.
:-)