In 113 Test Matches, he averages 42.
Away average is also 42.
Averages 65 in England and 50 in Pakistan, but only 36 in Australia.
Averages 52 in matches won abroad, 47 in matches won overall.
Has a 43% winning record as captain (highest among Indians), and led India to Test match wins in Australia, England, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, though he couldn't win the series.
Has been peppered with numerous disciplinary issues, allegations of high-handedness and favouritism.
Away average is also 42.
Averages 65 in England and 50 in Pakistan, but only 36 in Australia.
Averages 52 in matches won abroad, 47 in matches won overall.
Has a 43% winning record as captain (highest among Indians), and led India to Test match wins in Australia, England, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, though he couldn't win the series.
Has been peppered with numerous disciplinary issues, allegations of high-handedness and favouritism.
Sourav Ganguly was the cricketer India always needed but never realized how badly. He brought everything that Indian cricket had always been alien to - arrogance, behavioural aggression, the audacity to rub the traditional powers up the wrong way - and moulded it to forge a passionate, fierce and feisty new era for Indian cricket. Folklore, stories and discussions have always highlighted his weakness against the short ball and pace bowling, but seldom do they speak of the bloody-mindedness with which he overcame these problems (proof: an away average of 42). As a captain Ganguly was blessed to have Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman in prime form, but as a batsman he was perhaps a touch unlucky to always be seen in the shadow of these greats and be noted more than once as being the weakest link of the 'fab four'. Suffice to say that had he played in any other era, he would have been recognized as a greater Test batsman than he is now. One of Ganguly's least noticed traits was his ability to drown all the inadequacies and allegations in and around him in a sea of indifference, and produce a moment of magic from nowhere. For all his spunk, though, as a Test batsman he was at best 'very good', and perhaps never 'great'. He undid a lot of the good work he did as captain towards the end of his reign, which touched rock bottom when he backed out on the morning of the Test against Australia on account of an unfriendly pitch in Nagpur, leading to a series defeat. While many of the stories regarding his politics-play are wildly exaggerated (Greg Chappell notwithstanding), , it can't be argued that there was a grain of truth in the allegation. For all that, though, he deserves credit for the tremendous mental strength he showed in not just regaining his place in the side, but also following that up with perhaps his two best years with the bat. His high ranking, however, is also because he taught India to snarl and bite back when bitten, like no one else did. In him lie the roots of the brash and brave new face of Indian cricket that the likes of Gambhir, Dhoni, Harbhajan, Ishant, Yuvraj and Zaheer brandish.
144 vs Australia, Brisbane 2003.
| For nearly a century, touring Australia came with a baggage for India, and a dreaded pattern of 'we came, we bent over backwards, we got whipped, we went back'. The trend was expected to continue. After Australia put up 329, India had collapsed to 62 for 3 with Tendulkar and Dravid gone. Ganguly arrived at the crease, painted as a bruised, battered victim of chin music even before a ball had been bowled. The Aussies (players, crowds and media) | had not forgotten the petulance he showed in snapping back at the Aussie sledging in 2001, and the knives were ready. However, over the next five sessions of play, with rain and thunder providing a dramatic backdrop, Ganguly set about turning a 70-year load of history and run of momentum on its head. He started at just 62, and by the time he and his little band including Chopra, Laxman and Patel were done, India had actually taken a lead against | Australia in Australia. It was almost surreal as in the span of few sessions, India went from being at the edge of slipping down the regular route of spineless subjugation and humiliation to actually taking a lead, scoring the first punch and winning the first round. India ended up drawing the match, and taking the moral honours, for once. It set the tone for the series, very memorably. |
87 vs South Africa, Kanpur 2008.
| After getting slaughtered in the 2nd Test by an innings, a shell-shocked India came to the last Test at Kanpur hoping for some home advantage. The attack South Africa fielded in this game was the same as the one that wrecked the Australians in their backyard recently, which is being touted as being the best in world cricket - Steyn, Ntini, Morne Morkel and Paul Harris. The curators served up a wicket that seemed programmed to put the spoilt rich kids that are modern batsmen through a military training school. South Africa batted first, and India kept them to 264. Too much on this wicket? India went | down to 35 for 2 - South Africa had lost their second at 152. Ganguly stepped in fighting the quicks, the pitch, and the run of play. The dodgy pitch he handled with care and precision. Strategic brilliance was never the primary quality he was known for, but he showed it here, rotating the strike, taking 53 of his 87 runs in singles, exposing the bowlers to the right-left combination. Runs were difficult to come by, and runs it would be which reduced the pressure, so he targeted the lone thing that was right up his alley in this battery of speed-demons - a left arm spinner. Once Laxman left Ganguly played | on with Yuvraj, Dhoni and the tail and was the 9th wicket to fall (87 off 119 balls; 9 fours, 1 six), having safely taken India 14 runs clear of South Africa's score. With heroics from the last wicket pair, India took a lead of 60, and bowled South Africa out for 121 to set up a comfortable fourth innings chase of 62. Four years ago, served up with a similar pitch, Ganguly had sulked like a kid and abandoned the game. This time though, he took it like a man and tamed the demons in the pitch, and in his head. |
98* vs Sri Lanka, Kandy 2001.
| Not for the first time, Ganguly came into this series with the chips down and with few straws to clutch at. India was fielding an injury-ravaged side with Tendulkar missing out on a Test match for one of the few times in his career. They had been beaten comprehensively in the first Test, the Lankans were cocky as ever at home and had momentum going their way. Ganguly's captaincy still had believers, but his batting as captain was under fire from all corners. He hadn't scored a fifty in over 13 innings, and averaged 26 as captain. Under these circumstances, India | started brightly, keeping Lanka down to 274. In keeping with recent trend, India collapsed rapidly to 154 for 6 before some wild hitting by Harbhajan (44) took them to 232. Zaheer continued to be bullish, bowling his heart out to pick 4 wickets while the old horse Venkatesh Prasad took the tail to claim five. 262 to win, the game was close enough for India to do their by now regular routine of putting up an entertaining humdinger but losing it anyway. However, Ganguly was to have none of it. Along with Dravid he set about carving one of the best fourth | innings partnerships in the history of Indian cricket, taking India from 103 to 194. The other bowlers slowly fell away, and Murali's endless tweaks, turns and twists came to nought. Reversing the fortunes, Ganguly, with Dravid, provided an anti-climatic, clinical, easy win to the Indians which left the full house in Kandy disappointed, but several in India happy. He finished on 98 not out, having constructed a fortress of an innings that Murali with his great guile could not breach in his own backyard. |
75 vs West Indies, Port of Spain 2002.
| By the time this series came along two reputations had set themselves firmly into the psyche of the cricketing fraternity - That India lacked the much-abused 'killer instinct' to finish off games when on top, and that Saurav Ganguly, for all his off-side majesty, was vulnerable against quick, short bowling especially when the team was in a tight spot. Within 8 days of the series, Ganguly found both these allegations staring him in the eye and throwing down the gauntlet. Having drawn the first Test, India took a 94 run lead run in the first innings of the | second test on a pitch where 94 was worth a little more than its face value. Looking to seal the matter in the second innings, India collapsed, somewhat typically, from 54 for 1 to 56 for 4. Tendulkar and Dravid gone, Ganguly came in with several hushed 'I told you so...'s ringing in the background. As a run-up he had a sorry string of scores which read 1, 30, 14, 30, 42, 4, 5 ,16, 0, 5 and 25. From then on, Ganguly set about turning the momentum and indeed, a historically acquired habit, on its head. The attack wasn't one that would make you keep an ambulance | handy, but the wicket helped bring alive all the ghosts that were said to haunt Ganguly - pace & awkward bounce commanded by a four-pronged pace attack. Laxman chipped in with 74 but left. Ganguly carried on and remained unbeaten on 75, with the next highest score aside of Laxman's being 36. The target of 313 was too much for the West Indians on that wicket, and against an inspired Indian fast bowling line up, they folded up for 275. |
51* and 25 vs South Africa, Johannesburg 2006.
| Ganguly had spent a long time in the wilderness, shunned from international cricket in humiliating fashion. He made his comeback in the most difficult setup imaginable - amidst plenty of doubters, playing abroad in seamer-friendly conditions, against a strong South Africa featuring Ntini, Styn, Pollock and Nel, and with many of his own countrymen willing him to fail. Tendulkar had taken India up from a | 'disastrous start' to a 'shaky situation'. But when Ganguly came in at 110 for 4, India was still on the wrong end of the cliff, with plenty of work to be done to get up on top. He was greeted with a Nel snorter that smashed into his left shoulder. But shrugging that, the enormous pressure and the fact that the rest of the batsmen were rapidly fading away, he built his innings with the tail, taking India to 249. The slide | was arrested, and the momentum was grabbed. Sreesanth then swung into the act (no pun intended) and in a whirlwind spell blew South Africa away for 84. When things looked a little shaky in the second innings, Ganguly chipped in with a handy 25 to support Laxman's 73. Set 402 in those pre-Smith-led 380+ chases, it was only a matter of time before India got home. |
HONOURABLE MENTION:
131 vs England, Lord's 1996.
| It is an interesting coincidence that in Dickie Bird's last Test was sown the seeds of the 'Fab Four', and indeed, those of the man who five years later would drag in India's new era. Whispers that originated four years ago came back - the spoilt brat, the prince, why was Ganguly picked? On winning the toss, surprisingly and perhaps bravely, Azhar put England in, and had them tottering at 110 for five. The previous games had seen India lose to county sides, and to England itself. But hopes of levelling the series took a blow | when Jack Russell of all people scored a hundred to take England to 344. At 59 for 2, India looked dodgy. Not in danger yet, but definitely dodgy. Ganguly walked in knowing that those who knew his history didn't want him to succeed, and those who didn't know didn't care. And then he unleashed those impossibly beautiful, indescribably graceful off-side drives whose charm even his harshest critic could not deny. And there began the great love-hate relationship between Ganguly, Indian cricket and world cricket. A little | collapse took India from 123 for 2 to 202 for 6. But it only served to bring together Ganguly and another debutant who had his own masterpieces to paint, Rahul Dravid. Of the 237 runs between 59 and 296 Ganguly had scored 131, and 80 of those came packed in those deliciously timed boundaries. By the time Ganguly and Dravid were done India had reached 419, the match saved, and England were on the back foot. That India could not take advantage of this is the story of the decade. |