Sourav Ganguly is a name that changed both the condition and direction of Indian cricket. He also did such captaincy that the world kept watching. Today on 9th July, Sourav Ganguly is celebrating his birthday. Team India touched new heights under Ganguly’s captaincy. He wrote such a story in his captaincy, which is still cited as an example. He was the one who broke Australia’s winning streak. His fans lovingly call him Dada and he is also called the God of Off Side. In the year 2019, Ganguly became the President of BCCI.
Sourav Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Kolkata. In domestic cricket, he played for East Zone and Bengal. Then he made his Test debut against England in the year 1996 and in his very first Test match, he played a brilliant innings of 131 runs. In his first match itself, he showed the world how much ability he has. After this, the very next year he was promoted to the top order in ODI cricket. Where he formed an opening pair with Sachin Tendulkar, one of the most dangerous pairs in the world of cricket.
When Ganguly became the captain in the year 2000, the Indian cricket team was going through a very difficult phase. Many players of the Indian team were banned due to match fixing. After this, Ganguly brought young players like Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh in Team India. He reshaped the team and taught them to win abroad. Many young players flourished under Ganguly’s captaincy, who later became the champions of Team India. Mahendra Singh Dhoni also made his debut under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly.
Team India won the Champions Trophy 2002 title under Ganguly’s captaincy. Then the Indian team became joint winners with Sri Lanka. The team reached the final of Champions Trophy 2000. But had to face defeat by four wickets against New Zealand. After this, India made it to the finals of the ODI World Cup 2003, where Team India had to face defeat against Australia.
The Australian team came to India in 2001 to play a three match Test series. The captain of that Australian team was Steve Waugh and the team had players like Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Shane Warne. That Australian team was considered to be the strongest. In such a situation, everyone expected that Australia would easily win the Test series. Australia won the first Test match by 10 wickets. This strengthened everyone’s claim. But in the second Test match, Team India won by 171 runs even after playing follow-on and stopped the Australian team’s undefeated campaign of 16 Test matches. India won the third Test match by 2 wickets. In this way, Team India won the series 2-1 after losing the first Test match.
Sourav Ganguly played 113 Test matches in his career, in which he scored 7212 runs and hit 16 centuries. He scored 11363 runs in 311 ODI matches, which includes 22 centuries. He also scored 72 half-centuries in ODI cricket. Ganguly is one of the most successful captains of India.
