1996: Sourav Ganguly after reaching his century on debut at Lord’s in the second Test vs England

Name: Sourav Ganguly

Born: July 8, 1972, Calcutta

Major teams: Bengal, India, Asia XI, Lancashire, Glamorgan, Northamptonshire, Kolkata Knight Riders

Batting style: Left-hand bat

Bowling style: Right-arm medium

Height: 5 ft 11 inches

Debut

Sourav made his international debut in an ODI against the West Indies in Brisbane 1992. He scored three runs and was dropped thereafter. He was recalled to the national side for the tour of England in 1996 amid intense media scrutiny.

2007: Sourav after making his first century at the Eden, his home ground, during the second Test vs Pakistan

Test career

He was not included the XI for the first Test against England. However, after Navjyot Singh Sidhu opted out of the tour, Sourav made his Test debut at Lord’s alongside Rahul Dravid. He scored a century, only the third cricketer to do so on debut at Lord’s, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. His 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on debut at Lord’s.

Sourav went on to score a century in his next Test match —136 at Trent Bridge — becoming one of three batsmen to make centuries in their first two Test innings, Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran being the other two. He also shared a 255 run stand with Sachin Tendulkar, at that time the highest partnership for India against any country for any wicket outside India.

He is currently the fourth highest Test run-scorer for India, with 7127 runs and has most runs and 100s (16) in Tests for India than any other left-hander. His 239 against Pakistan in December 2007 in Bangalore is the highest by an Indian left-hander.

Sourav’s Test batting average has never dipped below 40 in his entire career. His highest being 133.50 (2nd Test, 2nd innings at Nottingham, 1996) and lowest 40.42 (52nd Test, 88th innings in Nagpur against Zimbabwe, 2001-02). Among Indians, only Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammed Azharuddin have achieved this feat.

Whenever he has scored a 100 (16) India have never lost a Test — won four and drawn 12.

Bowling medium pace, he has taken 32 wickets in 112 matches, at an average of 52.53.

ODI career

2001: After the historic win over Australia at the Eden

Sourav scored his maiden ODI century against Sri Lanka in 1997. He opened the innings and scored 113 (in his side’s 238). Later that year, he won four consecutive Man of the Match awards — the only player in ODI history to do so — in the Sahara Cup against Pakistan, the second of these for his 5 for 16 off 10 overs, his best bowling in an ODI.

In January 1998, in the final of the Independence Cup in Dhaka, against Pakistan, he scored 124 as India successfully chased down 315 off 48 overs, winning the Man of the Match award.

In 1999-2000, India lost Test series to both Australia and South Africa and Sourav struggled, scoring 224 runs at 22.40. However, his ODI form was impressive, with five centuries over the season taking him to the top of the one-day rankings for batsmen.

In the 1999 World Cup, Sourav scored a career-best 183 (158 balls, 17x4, 7x6) against Sri Lanka at Taunton. The innings is the second highest in a World Cup match after Gary Kirsten’s unbeaten 188 against the UAE in 1996. It is also the highest by an Indian in the tournament. His partnership of 318 with Dravid is the highest- ever in the World Cup and is the second highest in ODIs.

Sourav is currently the fourth highest run-scorer (11,363 runs) in ODIs. Among Indians, he is behind Tendulkar (16,361). He and Tendulkar have been involved in a record 21 opening century stands in 136 matches.

Sourav has hit 190 sixes in ODIs. Only Sanath Jayasuriya (265) and Shahid Afridi (247) have hit more.

Sourav has the distinction of reaching 6000 runs in the least ODI matches (152) than any other batsman; reaching 7000 runs in the least ODI matches (180) and innings (174) than any other batsman; reaching 8000 runs in least ODI matches (208) and innings (200); and reaching 9000 runs in least ODI matches (236) and innings (228) than any other batsman.

He is also one of only three players in the world to achieve the treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket, the others being Tendulkar and Jayasuriya.

Captaincy

2004: After the maiden Test series win in Pakistan

In 2000, after the match-fixing scandal, Sourav was named captain. While he achieved significant success as captain, his individual performance deteriorated during his tenure, especially after successes in the 2003 World Cup, the tour of Australia in 2003-04 and the Pakistan series in 2004. Following indifferent form in 2004 and poor form in 2005, he was dropped from the team in October 2005.

Tests

• Captained India in a record 49 Test matches

• Led India to a record 21 Test victories

• Captained India in a record 28 away Test matches and led India to a record 11 away Test wins

• He is the only India captain to win a Test series in Pakistan, 2004 (although Rahul Dravid led in two of the three Tests of that series)

ODIs

• He is India’s most successful ODI captain. Has led India in 147 ODIs— the sixth most by any player in history

• In the 2000 Champions Trophy he scored two centuries but his second in the final was in vain as New Zealand won by four wickets

• In 2003, he led India to the World Cup final, where they lost to the Australians

Lord’s Controversy

Sourav took off his shirt in public and brandished it in the air to celebrate India’s win over England in the final of the 2002 NatWest Trophy at Lord’s. He was strongly condemned for tarnishing the game’s image and disrespecting Lord’s protocol. Sourav said that he was only mimicking an act performed by Andrew Flintoff during the tour of India.

ChappelLgate

2005: Sourav and Greg Chappell in Bulawayo

The controversy in late 2005 and early 2006 involved highly publicised infighting in the Indian team between newly appointed coach Greg Chappell and captain Sourav.

Sourav entered the Zimbabwe series in 2005 having not scored a century for almost two years since late 2003 — the 144 against Australia in Brisbane being his last century.The series saw him scoring a century in the first Test in Bulawayo. After his century, he accused members of the team management of trying to put pressure on him to resign as captain, although he did not name individuals. Later during the tour, Chappell sent an email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which criticised Sourav as being unfit to lead the team. The email was leaked to the media.

The dispute resulted in the removal of Sourav as captain. Rahul Dravid took charge in November 2005, with Sourav being dropped from the ODI team.

Sourav was eventually dropped from the Test team at the end of January 2006. The dispute stirred up strong emotions in India. Eventually Sourav was recalled to the team in both forms of cricket in late 2006 after form slumps to other batsmen, and was selected in the squad for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

Comeback

2003: After losing the World Cup final to Australia

Following India’s poor show in the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy and the ODI series in South Africa, Sourav made his comeback to the Test team.

In his first Test innings after this, against the Proteas in Johannesburg, he scored 51 in a low scoring game, an innings that helped India win a match in South Africa for the first time. Though India went on to lose the series, he topped the run-getters list.

After his successful Test comeback he was recalled to the ODI team, as India played host to the West Indies and Sri Lanka. In his first ODI innings in almost two years, he scored a match-winning 98. He performed creditably in both series, averaging almost 70.

Following this, Sourav was named in the squad for the 2007 World Cup. He was the leading scorer for India in their first round defeat.

On December 12, 2007, Sourav scored his maiden double century in Bangalore while playing against Pakistan in the first innings of the third and final Test of the series. He was involved in a 300-run partnership for the 5th wicket with Yuvraj Singh. He went on to score 239 before being dismissed by Danish Kaneria.

Records

Sourav is the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Tests and the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 ODIs.

He has scored 16 centuries in Test matches and 22 in ODIs. He is one of only seven batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.

Sourav has 22 centuries in ODIs, in terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is only behind Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Ricky Ponting.

Sourav, along with Tendulkar, formed by far the most successful opening pair in ODIs, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (21). Together, they have scored more than 7000 runs at an average of 48.98. With Sachin he shares the world record for creating most number of 50 run partnerships for the first wicket (44).

Holds the record of most 200-plus ODI partnerships (6 times) along with Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting. Holds the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for most 1st wicket ODI partnerships of 175-plus runs (7 times).

Holds the record, with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI — 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.

First Indian to score an ODI century against Australia in Australia.

Was the highest ODI run scorer in the world (in a calendar year) in 1997,1999,2000.

Third in the list of hitting maximum number of sixes in ODIs.

Second in the list of highest number of centuries in a single calendar year — seven in 2000.