Saturday, January 14, 2012

Why Sourav Ganguly is one of India’s Greatest Test Batsman ever ?

Do you know, Sourav Ganguly has been the most consistent Indian Test Cricketer in the last 15 years ? Yes, it’s not Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid, but a certain Sourav Ganguly, and its not be but a certain set of stats that prove it. Sourav Ganguly is the only Indian Cricketer in the last 15years, to have a consistent test average of 40+ throughout his career. The great Rahul Dravid, had 5 such occasions, yes 5 when his test average was below 40.



Sourav Ganguly’s career test average is 42.17, certainly very good. And 41.07 in the famous No 6 position, which is still vacant, even after 3 years & 3 months of Ganguly’s retirement. But I will come to that part later. His best two averages came at No 4 & No 3 positions for India. At No 3 being his second best with 47 & at No 4 his average is 66, which is the best in the world. Yes even greater than the Legend Sachin Tendulkar, but we often forget to remember these facts. He was the captain, he was most successful in these positions, so if he really wanted, he could have batted there, especially at No 4, because he was even more successful than Sachin at that position, in fact the most successful player in the world. But he was a Team player, and he played for the Team. He knew he can do well batting in No 3, 4, 5 or 6. This makes him great, the fact that he could do it at any position, the fact that he sacrificed a greater part of his own career just to make sure the team does well.

1200 days! Has there been any other cricketer in the world, whose replacement has been so hard to find. I’m not much of a cricket historian, but I can easily tell you the answer is NO. He has been that “Special” and he was that great of a Test cricketer, whose shoes are almost getting impossible to fill. Steve Waugh, someone with a much greater test record than Ganguly, was replaced with such ease, But why are we finding it so difficult to replace Ganguly?

But the fact remains, Greatness is not just by the stats you have, Ganguly’s stats were 7212 runs in 113 tests at an average of 42.17, [well that is pretty good too isn’t it?] but the kind of impact the player had on the team. When a player has retired for 3 years & the team is still missing him in every match, just shows you how special the player was.

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