Kolkata: June 22, 1996 will forever occupy a special place in the heart of Indian cricket lovers. The day marked the entry of two of the greatest batsman Indian cricket has witnessed as Sourav Chandidas Ganguly and Rahul Sharad Dravid made a memorable test debut at Lords. Sourav scored a century on his Test debut at the ‘Mecca’ of cricket while Dravid fell agonizingly short by 5 runs.
Twenty years is a long time in the life of a sportsperson, but for the Prince of Kolkata, memories of Lord’s are still fresh in his mind. It was on June 22, 1996, that Sourav became the first Indian cricketer to hit a century on Test debut at the “Mecca” of cricket.
“It was easily the best moment of my career. A century on debut at Lord’s…. it doesn’t get bigger than this,” Sourav told xtratime.in on Monday.
To say that he was under pressure would be an understatement. Included as a batting all rounder, Sourav was under no illusion that it was going to be a make-or-break series for him. Not picked for the first two ODIs, Sourav made a splendid 46 on a seaming Old Trafford wicket in the third and final match. That innings at Old Trafford signaled he was just about ready to take the challenges in test matches.
But surprisingly he was left out for the first Test at Edgbaston that India went on to lose by eight wickets. A twist of fate paved the way for Sourav’s Test debut. His room partner on the tour, Navjyot Singh Sidhu, had staged a walk-out from the team after a row with skipper Azharuddin. The team management, clearly under pressure, could not ignore the southpaw after he made a fine 64 against Derbyshire in testing conditions.
Sourav was informed by both Azhar and Sandip Patil that he will be making his test debut, a day before the Lords test. He was handed over the India cap by skipper Azhar on June 20. The fact that India chose to field first also eased his nerves and helped him to settle down. The wickets of Naseer Hussain and Graeme Hick also did his confidence a world of good.
Chasing England’s first-innings tally of 344, Sourav, who came into bat at No. 3 after the fall of Nayan Mongia was up against a fiery Dominic Cork, Allan Mullally , Peter Martin and Chris Lewis. It was baptism by fire for the left handed batsman from Behala.
Sourav stood firm at one end even as India lost the wickets of Nayan Mongia (24), Sachin Tendulkar (31), Mohammad Azharuddin (16) and Ajay Jadeja (10) before he found an able ally in another debutant, Rahul Dravid. The duo shared a 94-run partnership for the sixth wicket to help India gain a first-innings lead of 85.
He remained unbeaten on 26 on Day 2 (June 21) and went on to make a flawless 131 on Day 3 in front of a capacity crowd on Saturday. The left hander spent 435 minutes at the crease and faced 301 balls to score the runs which included 20 hits to the fence.
One of the features of Sourav’s innings was his off-side play. He drove so elegantly along the ground and pierced the off-side field with such precision that it drew applause from the Members’ stand. The century at Lords by the Sourav marked the beginning of a new era in Indian cricket.
Ironically, in spite of his wonderful knock in the drawn Test, Sourav didn’t get the Man-of-the-Match award. It went to England’s Jack Russell for his 124 in the first innings. But he got his due as BBC nominated him as their player of the match by presenting him with a magnum sized bottle of champagne-the Brian Johnston Award.
The bottle still remains unopened and is one of his prized possessions in his Behala residence along with a wrist watch presented to him by his first skipper Azhar.