Career Achievements
ODIs
Mat Runs HS BatAvg 100 50 W BB BowAvg 5W Ct St
Overall 249 9309 183 42.12 22 53 93 5/16 35.13 2 86 0
Test Matches
Mat Run HS BatAvg 100 50 W BB BowAvg 5W Ct St
Overall 72 4509 173 41.75 11 21 23 3/28 50.52 0 52 0
Sourav Ganguly, like any other culcutta kid was more interested in Football than cricket.
Ganguly's elder brother Snehashish Ganguly, who was an accomplished cricketer for the Bengal team, was a left hander. Ganguly used his brother's cricket kits hence he simply started to follow his brother and play with a left hand. Then at the Class ten holidays, Ganguly was enrolled in a cricket coaching camp, from where on he started his cricketing career.
Once, the under 15 Orissa team was in Culcutta, and Ganguly smashed them with a wonderful century. A hundred (121) for East Zone against West Zone in the Duleep Trophy in 1991 earned Sourav a place on the tour of Australia in 1991-92. Ganguly played only one ODI and then was forgotten for four years. His talent was doubted. People said that Ganguly had attitude problems and that he was high-headed and arrogant since he was from a rich background. Ganguly became a forgotten man.
But fate had different things for him. He was selected for the Indian team which toured England in 1996. During that tour, Navjot Singh Sidhu had some misunderstanding with his captain Azharuddin, while Sanjay Manjrekar was injured. Ganguly got the right chance to prove. Yet he was criticized as someone who has got into the team, with the help of quota. But all that lasted only till the second Test at Lord's where he blasted a superb century.
In the Sahara Cup 1997, Saurav Ganguly set a new World Record for 5 consecutive Man of the Match Awards. He was also the Man of the Series. Ganguly made a mammoth 183 against Sri Lanka in World Cup 1999, which, at that time, was the Highest ODI Score by an Indian, beating Kapil Dev's Record of 175*. Then in February, 2000 he was appointed the Captain of the Indian Cricket team.
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