Sourav Ganguly was the best captain the Indian team could’ve had during the early 2000s, especially after the match-fixing saga. Team India required a strong leader to take control and instill the much-needed confidence. Ganguly then revamped the entire team and restored pride in them, making the people fall in love with the sport again.
The current BCCI president shown immense belief in then youngsters like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, and a handful of others to create a solid core group. Gradually, he transformed the pool of highly talented individuals to become genuine match-winners by encouraging them to play fearlessly. The credit for the Indian team’s present dominance undoubtedly began under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly.
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Here are 5 decisions of Sourav Ganguly that changed Indian cricket:
#1 Bat First in The Headingley Test in 2002
Headingley contested the third Test between England and India and there was a huge cloud cover. The toss fell in Sourav Ganguly’s favor and surprisingly, decided to bat first. The reason behind the call was Ganguly’s desire to exploit the turning pitch on the last two days of the two days as the tourists opted for Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble. Eventually, India made a huge score of 628-8, backed by centuries from Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and Sachin Tendulkar and they won the game against England by an innings and a 46-run loss.
#2 Sourav Ganguly promoting Virender Sehwag to open
Virender Sehwag started his international with a thrashing knock of 105 against South Africa. Nevertheless, Ganguly then asked Sehwag to open the innings, which redefine the role of attacking play, which had not been witnessed in Test cricket for a long time. The Delhi-born opener smashed more than 8000 runs in both Test and ODIs and played at a phenomenal strike rate of 82.23 in the longest format. He also holds the record for the fastest triple-hundred in Tests and scored two in his career.
