What if Wednesday | What if Sourav Ganguly played in the 2010s
We know that Sourav Ganguly was born on July 8, 1972, and went on to play a grand total of 424 international games for the country in a 16-year-span between 1992 and 2008. But what if Ganguly, instead, was born a decade later, and what if the ‘Prince of Kolkata’ played in the 2010s?
We are at Old Trafford, Manchester, for the semi final of the 2019 ICC World Cup where the game has had to be played over two days due to the English weather. We are at the fag end and MS Dhoni is on strike facing the third ball of the 49th over, bowled by Lockie Ferguson. The delivery is a short one that Dhoni flaps away behind square on the leg side and sets off for a double. However, Martin Guptill’s throw is a bomb and the former Indian skipper has to make his way back. On his way back, there appears to be no sorrow on his face, just a smile knowing the job is done. Confused? To understand this moment, we need to go back and look at how we got here.
Post a fairly successful John Wright era, India decided to stick with a foreign coach and signed up Tom Moody to lead a side that had a good mix of youth and experience. However, after a modest result at the 2007 World Cup where India reached the semi finals, only to be beaten by Sri Lanka for a third time in the tournament, the Men in Blue decided to look for another coach and found the perfect man for the job in the form of Gary Kirsten. The South African coached a talented side, led by MS Dhoni, to a World Cup in 2011. Post the win, established Indian stars start struggling to keep up and the selection committee decide to make a statement by pumping some fresh blood into the system.
With an in-form England coming to India in 2012, Gambhir had not scored a Test century for almost two years and that is where it all began. The selectors had quite a lot of talent to choose from in the shape of Cheteshwar Pujara, Murali Vijay and even Parthiv Patel. However, they decide to take the dive in with a youngster from Bengal who had impressed one and all with his performances in the Ranji Trophy and the IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders. Having inspired the underperforming Bengal side to a finals appearance in 2010, he was named skipper at just 21. The very next year, KKR decided to hand over the team to this talented youngster, who was “one of their own”, in the hope of changing the fortunes of a struggling franchise. And how well it worked! In his first season as skipper, and much thanks to a certain Sunil Narine, Sourav Ganguly becomes a household name after delivering the first IPL trophy to the Eden Gardens.
Back to international cricket and Ganguly is handed his first cap against an English team that looks custom built to end India’s home dominance. The first Test is played in Nagpur, which in a parallel universe will be the same venue where Ganguly hangs up his boots, and a convincing century in his first ever innings is good enough for the hosts to share the spoils.
In the second Test in Mumbai, a Kevin Pietersen masterclass, allied with a second innings Indian collapse, hands England the lead in the series. Another collapse in his hometown of Kolkata threatens to end the series but a defiant Ganguly (160) finds a worthy partner in the form of Ravi Ashwin (91*) as the duo ensure a draw. Building on the momentum, India manage to take the final Test in Ahmedabad thanks to centuries from Sehwag and Pujara.
Come 2013, India need to revamp the top order and decide to promote Rohit Sharma to partner Ganguly up top with Virat Kohli following the duo. As the three start growing in international cricket, it becomes very clear how special the trio is, even by modern standards. Ganguly leads the way as India pick up another ICC winners medal in the form of the 2013 Champions Trophy, where he is awarded the Player of the series thanks to his 363 runs.
As Dhoni decides to call it a day in the longest format, in 2014, Virat Kohli is handed the captain’s role amidst some groans from Ganguly loyalists who point to the second IPL trophy he had won in 2014 as validation for his skills and understanding of the sport. In his first ever World Cup, Ganguly returns home, from Australia, with good numbers but empty handed as the Men in Blue are eliminated by Australia in a one sided semi final in Sydney.
After crashing out of the 2016 World T20 in surprising fashion, the team’s focus immediately shifts to the Champions Trophy in 2017. However, before we get there, the team has one more question to answer. Dhoni decides to step down from the limited overs captaincy at the start of 2017 and again the big question of who should lead the side comes up. After the board consider the option of having different captain’s for different formats, they settle on sticking to the traditional style and hand Virat Kohli the keys to the kingdom.
But as India, who are heavily favoured to defend their Champions Trophy crown, are ousted by Pakistan in the final and Kohli has a falling out with then coach Anil Kumble, who is relieved of his duties soon after, the murmurs for a change at the top start yet again. But again the board decide that they would like Kohli to have a fair shake at the role. Entering 2018, India have a huge year ahead of them with the team travelling three of the four SENA countries with a side many see as one that can finally taste some success overseas. A quick couple of losses to South Africa are finally enough for the board to strip the Test captaincy of Kohli, who concedes all formats.
With two candidates, Rohit and Ganguly, ready to take over, the board holds Rohit’s inability to break into the Test side, and the fact that the now King of Bengal, after a third IPL trophy in 2017, was a dominant figure in every format, against him as the KKR skipper finally takes his place at the top of the Indian pyramid. As his first true assignment, Ganguly heads over against the team he stopped from creating history in his debut in the hope of becoming the first captain in a decade to win a series against the inventors of the sport.
A well fought series, despite the efforts of Kohli and Ganguly with the bat, ends in despair though as England seal the series 3-2. But Ganguly has already been dealt a monster hand with Australia losing both Steve Smith and David Warner to a freak ball tampering incident in Cape Town and the focus immediately switches to winning the first ever Test series Down Under. A 2-1 win forces coach Ravi Shastri to compare it with the 83 World Cup win but Ganguly, being ever the leader, starts planning ahead for the mega event next year.
In fact by then, he has already identified India’s biggest problem - the No. 4 spot. As multiple players fail to seal their spot, Ambati Rayudu being the last of the lot, Ganguly concedes his position at the top to Dhawan and takes on the cursed position. And it works out well as even a resurgent Australia are stopped from winning an ODI series in India months before the World Cup kicks off. As questions regarding MS Dhoni’s place in the team came up, Ganguly was adamant that the former skipper deserved their support and assured the selectors that he would come good when the moment arose. With India again looking like one of the favorites, Ganguly and his merry men fly off to the British Isles for their date with destiny. Despite Dhawan picking up an injury, Ganguly decides to stay put at No. 4 and hands the opening spot to Karnataka lad KL Rahul. A dominant India top the table to book a place in the semis with New Zealand.
Now that we are all caught up, the reason for Dhoni’s smile is the fact that had he completed the run, India would have booked a place in the final. But with three wickets in hand and just a run to win, India have already sealed a date with the winner of Australia or Pakistan, who made it in after India thrashed England in the group stages to put them out of contention early. It hadn’t been straight forward as India found themselves in the midst of a horrible collapse before Dhoni and Ganguly steadied the ship to break New Zealand’s hope of a second consecutive final. As Bhuvneshwar hit the winning runs, the World Cup was almost over with India easily outplaying Australia in the final to lift their third World Cup.
The King of Bengal soon took his place amongst the Gods as the man who finally got India over the hump. MS Dhoni announced his immediate retirement stating that he had won everything there was to be had and there was nothing else he wanted to do but watch the next generation of stars take the game forward. Ravi Shastri, too, decided to call it quits echoing Dhoni’s words. Despite the win, Ganguly’s focus again turned to the 2020 World T20 in Australia which would complete the set for the Southpaw. As multiple coaches threw their names into the hat for the most coveted role in world cricket, Kumble appeared to be the favorite to land the job. That was until the final name came in. The headlines the next day simply read,” Greg Chappell announced as India head coach”.