Bengal Tiger That Roared In Lords'

Pitches have been stormed by thousands of players every season. Format of cricket internationally remains the same with static rules. But what makes the player stand-out beyond the ground in the audience's voice is their game style. Every single time a player walks into the crease with paramount of hope to embark their name in history of cricket.

Such a promising player who created his own game plan in Indian team's victory was Sourav Ganguly. The West Bengali former Indian cricketer is unanimously the best aggressive skipper who drove Indian team as a missile unit.

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly born on 8th July 1972 grew up in Calcutta, West Bengal. His family was one of the most prestigious groups in Calcutta which gave him the name Prince of Calcutta (aka Maharaja by local people).

Cricket career

Complete opposition from his parents to enter cricket made him more rebellious about the desire to play. His brother who had been associated with cricket by then helped him venture into the field. No one would have imagined Sourav will become the God of the Off-side when he decided to be a left-hand batsman just so that he could use his brother's equipment.

He made his ODI debut against West Indies in 1992 but scored just 3 runs. Post this match it was a long gap until he played again for India. His Test series debut was in 1996 against England. Sourav's explicit knock of 131 and 136 in sequential innings on debut match was a record unbeaten till date by any Indian.

Consecutively back-to-back thunder performances in 1997, 1998, 1999 matches against Sri Lanka, Australia and World cup of 1999 made his place permanent in the national team.

The year 2000 marked the start of his journey as a captain when Sachin Tendulkar stepped down from captaincy due to match-fixing scandals of other players. Sourav exhibited tremendous leadership in various matches during 2000 and 2001.

2002 NatWest series was an unforgettable moment for every Dada fan when he celebrated his team members' performance shirtless in Lord's ground. Again he survived the controversy to make a bold statement that he was just mimicking an act performed by the British all-rounder Andrew Flintoff during a tour of India.

2003 remained as an astounding year for the Indian team to be placed on the international stature. India reached finals of 2003 World Cup. It was a stupendous episode after 20 years in Indian history only made possible by Sourav's compassionate captaincy.

2004 was an amazing year as a captain for Ganguly but not individually. He was honored and praised intensely as India's most successful captains. Due to his deteriorating individual performance he was dropped from national team in 2005 which made Rahul Dravid the skipper. Later he had a strong comeback in 2006 which initiated the rift with Greg Chappell.

In 2007 he played his last ODI match against Pakistan and final Test series in 2008 against Australia under M S Dhoni's captaincy.

People will support you, people will criticize you. When you cross that rope everything is about you- Ganguly

_{*Source http://souravganguly.co.in/records-accolades/}

Those were the days of cricket when India was still on the verge of creating a place on international ratings. It made every single player cautious and hesitant about their next big step. All this never stopped Ganguly from becoming the first Indian skipper to audaciously make his costly decisions.

While that era of cricket was molding classic Indian cricketers, Sourav Ganguly paved the way for those cult players. Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, M S Dhoni the cricketers who shared major part in shaping Indian cricket record have debuted under Ganguly.

He went on to play as Kolkata Knight Riders captain in IPL and now remains as the Delhi capitals advisor (2019).

Sourav was an extraordinary cricketer India has ever had because he was bold, aggressive and never feared to choose the untraveled path for winning. As any other fiercely competitive industry, cricket also tends to produce unique talents which can never be justified by mere comparisons up or down the lane.

Dada will always hold an irreplaceable spot in every cricket fanatics life !