 The return of Sourav Ganguly
14th Dec 2007 23:31 IST
Manish Kumar
The return of Sourav Ganguly to international cricket has earned as much applause as did his debut in Test cricket when he hit a century at Lord’s.
After all, there are not many cricketers who within a year of their comeback score their first hundred at their home ground, notch up their first double century, lead the team with the bat to register a series win over archrivals on home soil after 27 years by scoring the maximum runs in a series and rounding it off by scoring 1000 runs in Test cricket in a calendar year.
Statistically, 2007 has been the most successful year for Ganguly with over 1000 runs and two more possible innings left in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Ganguly’s comeback story started in November 2006 when he was selected by the national board of selectors, chaired by Dilip Vengsarkar, in the team for the three-Test series against South Africa.
The decision came after India could not reach even the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy, held in India, as well as losing the opening three games of an ODI series with South Africa. The selectors decided to back experience in a total reversal of coach Greg Chappell's mission to inject fresh blood into the Indian cricket team and Ganguly was selected alongside VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan, who had also been removed from the Test team.
And after the recall, in his first warm up match against Rest of South Africa, Ganguly scored 83 runs when his team was in troublesome position at 69/5. This knock helped India win against Rest of South Africa.
Ganguly went on to play a crucial knock in the first Test, scoring 51 not out in the first innings in a low scoring game. India went on to win the match, its first win in South African soil for 17 years. Though India ended up losing the next two Tests and thus the series, Ganguly emerged as the top run scorer for India, with an aggregate of 214.
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