Sourav Ganguly was undoubtedly one of the greatest cricketer and captain in India’s history. Under his captaincy, Ganguly took Indian cricket team to a new high. Despite many controversies during his international career, there is not a single critic of Ganguly’s hard-earned achievements.
15 Facts About Sourav Ganguly That Will Shake Your Cricket Knowledge
1. In early cricketing days, Sourav Ganguly was a right-handed batsman. But quickly, he transformed himself into a left-handed batsman. Though it is unknown that why Ganguly transformed himself into the left-handed batsman, but it is heard that he was inspired by his elder brother Snehashish Ganguly, who was a left-handed batsman so that as a left-handed batsman Ganguly could use his brother’s cricket gear.
2. Sourav Ganguly scored 131 runs on his debut at Lord’s in June 1996. Till date, it is still the highest score by any international debutant player at Lord’s.
3. Sourav Ganguly was the first Indian to score a century in the World Cup knockout match. In 2003 WC semi-final, Ganguly scored unbeaten 111 against Kenya which was the first century by an Indian batsman in a WC knockout stage.
Rohit Sharma is the only other Indian cricketer to achieve this feat. Rohit scored 137 runs in 2015 WC quarter-final match against Bangladesh.
4. As a captain, Sourav Ganguly hit most centuries in a single World Cup. He hit 3 centuries in World Cup 2003, which is still the most no. of centuries by a captain in a single World Cup.
Ganguly hit second most centuries in World Cup histories as captain. Ganguly hit 3 centuries in World Cup as captain while former World Cup-winning Australian captain Ricky Ponting hit 4 centuries in WC as captain.
5. Also, Sourav Ganguly hit most ODI centuries as a left-handed batting captain. Ganguly hit 11 ODI centuries as captain. Sanath Jayasuriya is at the second position in this list with 10 centuries.
6. As a left-handed batsman, Sourav Ganguly scored most international runs for India. Ganguly led in both international formats (Test and ODI) in this category as his total international runs were 18,433 (7,212 runs in Tests and 11,221 runs in ODIs).
7. Sourav Ganguly hit most centuries by an Indian left-hander in international cricket. Ganguly hit 38 centuries (16 in Tests and 22 in ODIs) during his international cricketing career.
8. Outside India, Sourav Ganguly hit most centuries as an Indian captain in ODI (9 centuries) as well as in the international cricket (12 centuries; 3 in Tests and 9 in ODIs). Also, Sourav Ganguly scored most Test runs (1693 runs) as an Indian captain outside India.
On the other hand, as an Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly is the second most ODI runs scorer (3,619 runs) as well as international runs scorer (5,312 runs) outside India. In these two categories, Ganguly is only behind MS Dhoni.
9. Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar are considered as one of the best batting partnership in international cricket. Ganguly-Tendulkar partnership scored most ODI runs (8,227 runs) by a pair. Also, the pair hit most century partnership in ODIs (26-century partnership) as well as in international cricket (38-century partnership; 12 in Tests and 26 in ODIs) and scored most ODI runs as an opening partnership (6609 runs).
Also, these Ganguly-Tendulkar partnerships scored second-most runs (12,400 runs in international cricket; 4,173 runs in Tests and 8,227 runs in ODIs) in the overall international cricket. This partnership is only behind in this category from Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka/ Asia XI – 13,368 runs in international cricket)
10. Sourav Ganguly is the only cricketer to win four successive Man of the Match (MoM) awards in ODIs. Ganguly earned these four MoM awards between 14th September and 21st September 1997.
11. As an Indian captain outside India, Sourav Ganguly won most Man of the Match (MoM) awards as well most Man of the Series (MoS) awards in ODI as well as in international cricket, till date. As an Indian captain, Ganguly won 8 MoM and 2 MoS awards outside India in the international cricket history. Out of those 8 MoM and 2 MoS awards outside India, Ganguly won 7 MoM and 2 MoS awards in ODIs.
12. During most of his ODI career, Sourav Ganguly played as an opening batsman (236 innings out of 300 ODI innings). But in his 188 Test innings (113 Test matches), only once he opened for India and that was in the 3rd innings (India’s second innings) of the 3rd Test (3-match Test series) between India vs Sri Lanka at Mumbai in December 1997. Ganguly was dismissed for 11 runs in that innings.
13. Sourav Ganguly’s Test career average is 42.17. The most interesting fact is that Ganguly’s Test average never fell below 40 at any point during his entire Test career.
14. Sourav Ganguly has the best ODI bowling figure for an Indian captain. Ganguly’s bowling figure was 10-1-34-5 against Zimbabwe at Kanpur on 11th December 2000.
15. When Sourav Ganguly scored a century in Test cricket, India never lost that match. Out of his 16 Tests centuries, India had drawn 12 Tests and won 4 Test matches.
As Sourav Ganguly turns another leaf in his life, we can only reminisce the former skipper’s greatness.