Xtra Time Web Desk: Exactly 25 years ago, on this day at Lords former India skipper Sourav Ganguly scored a century on his Test debut. He achieved the feat against England on the third day of the second Test at the Home of Cricket. England had been bundled out for 344 runs in the first innings as Venkatesh Prasad scalped five wickets for the visitors. Ganguly picked two wickets on the first day. His maiden test wicket was former England captain Naseer Hussain who was caught by Vikram Rathour. He followed up with the wicket of Graeme Hick caught by Javagal Srinath. His figures were 15-2-49-2.
Sourav walked in to bat after Tea on Day 2. His first scoring shot was a brilliant cover drive off Peter Martin. He remained not out on 26 runs while Sachin Tendulkar was batting on 16 at stumps.
The following day, i.e., Day 3 of the test was a Saturday and Lords was packed to the capacity. The Prince of Kolkata (as he is fondly called by Geoff Boycott) went on to play a knock of 131 runs from 301 balls with the help of 20 boundaries. He reached the three figure mark with an exquisite cover drive off Dominic Cork. His innings was studded with 20 boundaries.
The left-handed batsman was involved in a 94-run stand with Rahul Dravid for the sixth wicket. Ganguly was finally sent back to the pavilion by Alan Mullaly and India was left at 296/6.
It was also the Test debut of Rahul Dravid, however, the right-handed batsman missed out on a century after being dismissed for 95. BCCI on its official twitter handle shared a picture of the two great batsmen who went on bring more laurels for the country.
India was eventually bundled out for 429, gaining a lead of 85 runs over the hosts. England managed to hang on and the side registered 278/9 in the second innings as the match ended in a draw.
Over the years, Ganguly went on to become one of the most successful Indian skippers. Under his leadership, India defeated Pakistan in Pakistan for the first time in a Test series.
He also guided India to the finals of the 2003 Cricket World Cup. Ganguly played 113 Tests and 311 ODIs.
The swashbuckling left-handed batsman scored 18,575 runs across all formats in his international career. In October 2019, Ganguly became the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).