Today is Sourav Ganguly’s birthday. Born on July 8, 1972, he is a big name in Indian cricket. He got India back on track after the match fixing scandal in the late 90s. He made India a strong team at home and abroad.
Besides being a great captain, Ganguly is a stylish batsman. People called him the ‘Prince of Kolkata’. Rahul Dravid said he was the “god on off-side because of his beautiful cuts and drives.
Ganguly played from 1996 to 2008 and had many achievements like scoring a century in his first Test at Lord’s against England. He was one of the first eight Indians to score over 7,000 runs in Tests. He also scored 16 centuries.
Ganguly did well in One-Day Internationals. He is India’s third-highest run-scorer with 11,221 runs and 22 centuries. Globally he is the eighth-highest run-scorer in ODIs and one of the 14 players to reach 10,000 runs in 50 overs.
Ganguly holds records. He is the only player to win four consecutive man of the match awards in One Day Internationals. He scored the highest individual score by an Indian batsman in a World Cup (183). He was the first player to score 3 centuries in a single World Cup (2003) and three in the Champions Trophy (2000 and 2002).
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Ganguly also bowled seam and took 100 wickets. This gave him a rare triple of scoring 10,000 runs, taking 100 wickets and having over 100 catches in ODIs.
Ganguly captained India in 49 Tests and 146 ODIs and won 21 and 76 respectively. He was good with tactics and picked young players who became some of India’s best.
