xtratime Logo

XtraTime Web Desk: Former India captain and current BCCI President Sourav Ganguly is celebrating his 48th birthday on Wednesday (July 8, 2020). He was the man responsible for transforming Indian cricket for good. He gave the self belief that Indians can win overseas.

Now when we look at the success of Virat Kohli and his boys overseas, it is all because of the legacy which started with the left hander from Behala.

Sourav took over the reins of captaincy when Indian cricket was in turmoil, entangled with match fixing allegations. Leading a young inexperienced bunch of cricketers he developed the side into a world beating unit. The likes of MS Dhoni,Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh went on to become match winners on their own right. Ganguly, who always had an eye for spotting talent, backed his instincts, giving them a fair go. And it produced the results.
Sourav is regarded as one of the best captains to lead India. His records speak for itself. He led India in 146 ODIs, winning 76 matches while losing 65 with a win percentage of 53.90. His captaincy in the longer format isn’t unimpressive either. He led the Indian team to 21 test wins from 49 matches, losing 13 and drawing 15 tests.

Ganguly’s biggest moment as captain came during the 2002 Natwest Series when he led India to an improbable win at the Lords. His bare-chested celebrations at the Lords balcony will forever remain etched in the memories of Indian fans. He also led India to the final of the 2003 World Cup, losing to Australia by 95 runs. Under his captaincy India were the joint winners of ICC Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka in Colombo.

Two major milestones under Ganguly’s captaincy in the longer format were drawing the test series 1-1 against Australia in 2003-04 and winning the test series against Pakistan 2-1 in 2004.
Ganguly scored 7212 runs from 113 tests at an average of 42.18 which included 16 hundreds. His ODI record was even more impressive as he scored 11363 runs from 311 ODIs at an average of 40.73 which included 22 hundreds and 72 fifties. He has also taken 100 ODI wickets.