Playing Style

Sourav Ganguly was a left-handed batsman whose runs came primarily from the off-side. Throughout his career, he played off-side shots such as the square cut, square drive and cover drive with elegance and complete command. Early in his career he was not comfortable with the hook and pull, often giving his wicket away with mistiming such shots. He was also criticized for having difficulty in handling short pitched balls and bouncers, notoriously exploited by the Australians and South Africans. However, after his comeback in 2007, he worked upon these weaknesses to a large extent. He used to hit powerful shots to the off-side on front and back foot with equal ease.

In One Day Internationals, where he usually opened the innings, he used to try to take the advantage of fielding restrictions by advancing down the pitch and hitting pace bowlers over extra cover and mid-off. He was also notorious for attacking left arm spin bowlers. Due to excellent hand-eye coordination, he was noted for picking the length of the ball early, coming down the pitch and hitting the ball aerially over mid-on or midwicket, often for a six. However, he did have a weakness in running between the wickets and judging quick singles. There were many instances where Ganguly's batting partner were run out due to Ganguly's calling for a run, and then sending him back while halfway down the pitch.

Ganguly was a right arm medium pace bowler. He could swing and seam the ball both ways and often chips in with useful wickets to break partnerships. Despite not being very athletic as a fielder, Ganguly has taken 100 catches in one-day Internationals.

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ODI

ODIs

Sourav Ganguly – The Mesmerizing Maharaj of Cricket

Been there and done that - everything from fame to hitting big runs to leading the squad to controversies, no players hogged the media attention in recent time in Indian cricket like Sourav Ganguly.

He first appeared on the horizon in 1992 on the Australian tour. While he didn’t get a chance to play, bit got entangled into controversy as he was termed an arrogant brat for his allegedly rude behaviour with the seniors. However, 1999 was his second coming as he stroked a maiden ton on his debut at Lord’s and the rest they say is history.

He instantly became the ‘God of the off-side’ and then came his big partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, which went on to become the best opening pair in the history of One-Day internationals.
He became India captain in 2000, at a time, when Indian cricket was going through its roughest patch, that of match fixing. But he helped put all that behind and started a new era and a new trend in which India started winning test matches abroad, more importantly, outside the sub-continent. Under him, the team peaked to reach the 2003 world cup finals in South Africa and then even more shockingly, drew Australia 1-1 in the test series Down Under in 2003-04. The highlight of the series was a fighting century he scored in the first test at Brisbane which set the tone for the whole series. And after it followed the historical tour to Pakistan, where team India triumphed in both the ODIs and the tests.

Things went downhill after this, as he lost his form first and then his indifferences with new coach Greg Chappell led to a breaking point in his career and everybody thought it was the end of the road for him, as he was kept out of the team for almost a year. But he slowly made his way back and had a great run where he was top scorer in the tests in South Africa, and also a fine ODI run on the tour to England. Later at home against Pakistan, he slammed back to back hundreds including a career best 239 at Bangalore.

BCCI politics and its myopic regionalism took a toll on him when after his brilliant comeback and despite his extra ordinary performance throughout 2007, he was always the first one at firing squad. He failed only in Sri Lanka series where all other seniors also performed miserably. But the guillotine came down only on Sourav at domestic level Irani Trophy team selection as he was kept outside of rest of the India side by then Vengsarkar led selection committee. The committee got changed meanwhile and Sri Kanth and news set of selectors took charge. The rumour was that it was a clear diktat from Board to Sourav that he would be given just one series for retirement and that would be Australia series. Unless had Sourav declared his retirement, it could have been a perennial axing later on – a CRS (Compulsory Retirement Scheme) indeed!

The writing on the wall became loud and clear for him. Enough is enough – that was the entire takeaway for him under such situation and he declared his retirement just a day before commencement of four tests Indo-Australia series. He played some brilliant knocks during the swan song series with a hundred and another near hundred score along with fifties.

In cricketing days his off drive was perfectly timed and perhaps his decision of retirement and then going with such high note were equally well timed that shows his maturity. Very few cricketers in world cricket retired so gracefully with such public applause. Everybody was telling on his retirement decision– ‘why now’?  Perhaps, that’s the best gift a cricketer of Sourav’s stature can expect. None went keeping head so high like him except Sunil Gavaskar in Indian cricket. He was a born leader and even in his style of retirement he sets an example to his rest of the team mates.

He is still the icon player for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, on the behest of franchise owner Shah Rukh Khan