 | News |  |
HOME | BOLLYWOOD | MOVIES | CRICKET | DIWALI | E-CARDS | COOKING | BABY NAMES | JOKES | FESTIVALS | MOBILES | CARS & BIKES | ||
InDepth headlines national business sports cricket regional entertainment technology world travel autos health | in-depth coverage > India-Sri Lanka Test Series 2005 > Sourav Ganguly hard done by 23.07 IST 14th Dec 2005 By Manish Kumar 
Taking his performance in the Kotla Test into consideration, one can’t help feeling that Sourav Ganguly has been hard done by for being axed from the Indian Test squad.Ganguly scored 40 and 39 runs in the innings that he played at the Kotla. His score in the first innings was the third highest in the team after Sachin Tendulkar’s 109 and VVS Laxman’s 69 and when a team gets folded up for a partly 290 runs, a score of 40 is seen as an above average score. And in the score of 290, Ganguly added 121 runs with Sachin for the fourth wicket. Ganguly’s score of 39 runs in the second innings came at a time when India needed someone to stay at the crease for a considerable time. Ganguly batted for 166 minutes and played Mutiah Muralitharan with immense caution and concentration and with a straight bat against Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando. In both the innings Ganguly fell to Murali. In the first innings leg before wicket while not offering a shot and in the second innings slightly edging the ball onto his stumps. Both the deliveries were the wrong ones from the off-spin genius. But you can count on your fingers the number of batsmen who have tamed Murali and read his leg spinners very well. Ganguly’s both scores of 40 and 39 were vital contributions at delicate junctures of the Kotla Test. Ganguly is not a genius like Brian Lara or Sachin or technically astounding batsman like Rahul Dravid, but his Test average has never come under 40 in his career since he made that stunning hundred at Lord’s in 1996 and an average of 40 is considered a benchmark of a good batsman in Test cricket. If the selectors had to adjust Virender Sehwag for the third Test then they could have dropped Gautam Gambhir from the playing XI, who scored 2 and 3 in both the innings at the Kotla and who was all at sea against the swinging ball. Gambhir may still be dropped as the selectors have named Wasim Jaffer in the Test squad. But Yuvraj Singh who scored an unbeaten 77 in the second innings could have opened the innings in the third Test purely on the basis that a winning combination should not be changed too much, if at all it has to be changed. Yuvraj has opened before in Test cricket and he did not fair well but that was against Australia and right now his confidence is sky-high specially after the ODI series against South Africa in which he was named Man of the Series. But the Indian selectors chose to drop Ganguly and it does not need too much of cricket acumen to know that the former Indian skipper is being made a scapegoat in the battle between Jagmohan Dalmiya and Sharad Pawar. But the Indian cricket board has never been known to be kind to players and the examples of Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Mohinder Amarnath and Mohammad Azharuddin will testify that. With this decision by the Indian selectors, it is most likely the end of the road for Ganguly. This is certainly not the way to treat India’s most successful captain ever. in-depth coverage > India-Sri Lanka Test Series 2005 > |
Marigold (Review) The Last Legion (Slideshow) Chak De India (Review) Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (Slideshow) Sachin Tendulkar makes Atherton eat his words Sachin Tendulkar joins 11,000 Test run club Sachin Tendulkar becomes third highest run-getter Sachin Tendulkar stills dreams about century at Lord's Tendulkar to go in Tests with confident frame of mind I am nowhere near the final stop yet: Sachin Tendulkar Sachin Tendulkar closes in on Waugh’s Test aggregate Aviva Life signs Sachin Tendulkar as brand ambassador I am unfazed by criticism: Tendulkar Sachin Tendulkar becomes first player to score 15,000 ODI runs Sachin's views on keeping Indian cricket at pace with times Tendulkar back into top twenty Entertainment Marigold : Movie Review When Salman and Ali Larter went Jet Skiing Ayesha Takia and Akshay Kumar in a supernatural thriller Sushmita Sen dating Dia Mirza's ex 'The Last Lear' selected for Toronto Film Festival |
