The Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly was the first Indian captain who provided the much-required belief to the team to win away from home.
Fondly called Dada, Sourav Ganguly turned 48 on Wednesday i.e. 8th of July. Apart from being one of the most elegant batsmen India has produced, Dad was extremely influential in shaping the Indian team. Dada was handed over the captaincy at a time when the Indian cricket team was in deep trouble on and off the field. On one hand, the team was not performing well on the pitch, and on the other hand, the team was dragged into a match-fixing controversy. It was the Prince of Kolkata who pulled the team back to winning ways.
Under Ganguly, the Indian side played a total of 146 One Day International matches. India managed to win 76 of them and lost 65 matches. 5 matches went into a no-result. The win percentage for Dada in One Day international is at 53.90 percent. In test matches, Dada captained the Indian side into 49 tests out of which 21 were wins and 13 were losses. The Indian side managed to draw 15 matches. His win percentage at Test cricket is 42.85.
The Side That Won Outside India
Outside the subcontinent, the Indian side hardly won prior to 2000. India even barely managed to give a fight. Under Ganguly, India played a total of 51 away games including Tests and One Day Internationals. The Indian side won 24 matches and lost the same number of matches. This includes the infamous win at the Natwest Series final of 2002 against England. The visual of Sourav Ganguly at the Lord’s Balcony will be etched in the hall of fame images of Indian cricket.
A year after the Natwest final, India managed to reach the final of the World Cup in 2003 but lost to arguably the toughest Australian side. In 2003-04, India toured Australia and managed to draw the test series 1-1. In Pakistan, India won the test series 2-1.
Many cricket stars took birth under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly. He was the one who promoted Virender Sehwag to open the batting, he was the one who pushed the selection of Harbhajan Singh and he was the one who guided a generation of match winners including Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Source: Zee News
