Sourav Ganguly Biodata

Early career

Ganguly started his career by playing in state and school teams. His elder brother 'Snehasish' was established cricketer for the Bengal cricket team. He supported Ganguly's dream to be a cricketer and asked their father to get Ganguly enrolled in a cricket coaching camp during his summer holidays. Ganguly was studying in tenth grade at that time. He learnt to bat left-handed so he could use his brother's sporting equipment. He was enrolled in a cricket academy and they used to watch a number of old cricket match videos, especially the games played by David Gower, whom Ganguly admired. Ganguly's playmanship gave him a chance to make his first-class cricket debut for Bengal in 1989, the same year that his brother was dropped from the team.

He is only the 2nd Indian to cross that mark in ODIs, after 'Sachin Tendulkar'. Wisden ranked him the sixth greatest one day international batsman of all time, next to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Dean Jones and Michael Bevan.

Cricket Career

In the year 1997 Ganguly scored his maiden ODI century by hitting 113, against to Sri Lanka's team total of 238. In the same year, he won four consecutive man of the match awards, in the Sahara Cup with Pakistan, the second of these was won after he took five wickets for 16 runs off 10 overs, his best bowling in an ODI. After a barren run in Test cricket his form returned at the end of the year with three centuries in four Tests all against Sri Lanka two of these involved stands with Sachin Tendulkar of over 250.

He was the part of the Indian team that competed in the 1999 Cricket World Cup in England. During the match opposite Sri Lanka at Taunton, India choose to bat. Ganguly scored 183 from 158 balls, and hit 17 fours and seven sixes. In the year 2000, Ganguly was named the Captain of the Indian cricket team. The decision was spurred due to Tendulkar stepping down from the position for his health, and Ganguly being the vice-captain at that time. In 2004, he had achieved significant success as captain and was deemed as India's most successful cricket captain by sections of the media.

Playing style of Ganguly

Ganguly loved Gower's style and used to watch old videos of him playing. He is influenced by 'David Boon', 'Mohinder Amarnath', 'Kapil Dev' and 'Allan Border'. Ganguly was played off-side shots such as the square cut and square drive and cover drive with complete command. 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. Ganguly is a right-arm medium pace bowler. He can swing and seam the ball both ways and often chips in with useful wickets to break partnerships.