Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly is a professional Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian National cricket team. Ganguly is a left-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm medium-pace bowler. Presently, he will be leading the Pune Warriors team at the IPL 5 season 2012.

After making it to the Ranji trophy tournament in the early stages of his career, in 1992 he played against the West Indies in his One day International debut. However he could score only three runs due to which he was dropped for the remaining of the tournament. He continued with to play domestic cricket alongside and showed massive improvement in the following years.

In 1997 season he was again recalled in the Indian national squad. While playing against Sri Lanka he opened the innings and scored 113 which was his first One day International century. During the Sahara Cup against Pakistan he was awarded four continuous Man of the Match awards. During the final of the Independence Cup at Dhaka in January 1998 Ganguly scored 124 and enabled India to chase 315 in 48 overs successfully. In March 1998 Ganguly was present in the Indian squad that defeated Australia.

In Calcutta he opened the bowling with his medium pace and took three wickets. During the 1999 World Cup while playing at Taunton against Sri Lanka he scored 183 runs in 158 deliveries and this innings comprised of 7 sixes and 17 fours. This became the highest score by an Indian batsman in this Cup and the second highest score in the history of the World Cup. Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were involved in a partnership of 318 runs which is the second highest partnership in One day International cricket and the highest ever in the World Cup records.

Due to Ganguly’s consistent performance and his all the time wining attitude he was announced as the captain of the Indian team in the year 2000. India reached the World Cup Final in 2003 under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly where they were defeated by the Australians. On one side Ganguly was very successful as a captain while on the other hand his individual performance declined particularly after the 2003 World Cup, the 2003 tour of Australia and the 2004 series of Pakistan.

Due to his declining form at the end 2004 he was dropped from the team. In 2006 India displayed a very poor performance at the ICC Champions Trophy. Looking back at the team’s performance Ganguly was called back for the test team. When Ganguly came to bat the scorecard read 37 for 4 and he further scored 83 while the opponents were the Rest of South Africa by taking a middle stump guard and altering his original batting method. It was an innings that led to India’s victory.

As he made a successful Test comeback Ganguly was included in the One day International team for the series against the West Indies and Sri Lanka. In his first One day International after 2 years he scored 98 runs which was a matchwinning knock. In both the series he performed well with an average of about 70 while in the Series against Sri Lanka he was the Man of the Series.

Due to a good performance Ganguly was included for the Cricket World Cup in 2007. In India’s first round defeat against Bangladesh he was the leading scorer. In the IPL Twenty20 cricket the Kolkata Knight Riders team was led by Ganguly on 18 April 2008.

Career Highlights

Ganguly led India to a record 21 Test wins and his test average has never been less than 40. He has been India’s most successful ODI captain and has been awarded thrice as the Man of the series award in test cricket and 7 in ODIs.