Saurav Ganguly
| An aggressive left-handed batsman
in the middle order, Saurav Ganguly's appointment as captain of India,
succeeding Sachin Tendulkar, in early 2000 reinforced his reputation as
one of the key components of the Indian team. It took him several years
to cement his place in the side, though. Ganguly had a disastrous start to his international career as a 19 year-old on tour to Australia in 1991/92 where both his ability and attitude was questioned. His recall for the 1996 tour to England was severely criticised but, with a century at Lord's, Ganguly signalled his arrival to the world and the Indian cricketing fraternity. Still he was considered fit only for Test matches because his inability to play onside strokes slowed down his scoring. He worked on the problem and gradually developed into an explosive opener, taking off with a bang in the 1997 Sahara Cup in Toronto, where he pocketed four Man of the Match awards in a row. The rest of that year saw him scoring more than 1,000 runs in Tests and one-dayers. Wonderful when dispatching the ball anywhere on the off side, and quite happy going down the wicket to unfortunate spinners, he is widely credited with taking the pressure off Tendulkar. As a one-day opener, Ganguly combines early aggression with his natural stroke-making skills. He also bowls right-handed medium pace, swinging the ball both ways. |
One-Day Batting Record
|
Matches
|
Innings
|
NotOut
|
Runs
|
Highest
|
Average
|
100s
|
50s
|
Catches
|
|
142
|
137
|
11
|
5411
|
183
|
42.94
|
12
|
32
|
41
|
One-Day Bowling Record
|
Overs
|
Maidens
|
Runs
|
Wickets
|
Average
|
Best
|
5 wickets
|
Strike Rate
|
Economy
|
|
365
|
19
|
1813
|
50
|
36.26
|
5/16
|
1
|
43.7
|
4.97
|