Sourav Ganguly
Nicknamed Dada Or THE GOD OF OFFSIDE
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sourav_Ganguly_Graph.png
Sourav Chandidas Ganguly is arguably India's best left handed batsman ever produced.
During his playing career, Ganguly established himself as one of the world's leading batsmen and also one of the greatest captains of the national cricket team. While batting, he was especially prolific through the off side, earning himself the nickname
God of the Off Side for his elegant strokeplay square of the
wicket and through the
covers.
He is famously known for his celebration in the Nat West Trophy of 2002 ,in which he took off his shirt
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_cricket_team_in_England_in_2002.
He led the Indian Team to the finals in World Cup 2003 and under his leadership ,the team won the Border Gavaskar Trophy in 2002 against a legendary Australian Side.
The Indian Team was ranked 8th before he became the captain and under his tenure ,the team went on the become 2nd in the rankings of ICC.
An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him, and transforming the Indian team into an aggressive fighting unit.
Ganguly became India's most successful Test captain. He led his team to victory on 21 occasions – seven times more than Mohammed Azharuddin with the second most wins—and led them for a record 49 matches—twice more than both Azharuddin and Sunil Gavaskar.Compared to his batting average of 45.47 when not captain,Ganguly's Test batting average as captain was a lower 37.66.
Statistics about Ganguly show that he was the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches,the 4th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests, and the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 ODIs.In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Ganguly is the second among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar (who has the most ODI runs) and the eighth overall. He has scored 16 centuries in Test matches and 22 in ODIs. He is also one of only ten batsmen to score more than 10,000 runs in ODIs.Along with Tendulkar, Ganguly has formed the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships (26) for the first wicket. Together, they have scored more than 7000 runs at an average of 48.98, and hold the world record for creating most number of 50-run partnership in the first wicket (44 fifties). Ganguly became the fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs, and was the fastest player to do so in ODI cricket, after Tendulkar. As of 2006, he is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in Pakistan (although two of the three Tests of that series was led by Rahul Dravid). He is also one of the five players in the world to achieve amazing treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket history, the others being Tendulkar, Kallis,
Sanath Jayasuriya and
Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Opposition Batting Statistics
Opp Mat. Runs Avg. HS 100
/50
Australia 24 1403 35.07 144 2 / 7
Bang. 5. 371 61.83 100. 1 / 3
England 12. 983 57.82. 136 3 / 5
NZ. 8 563 46.91 125 3 / 2
Pakistan 12 902 47.47 239 2 / 4
South A 17 947. 33.82. 87 0 / 7
Sri Lanka 14 1064. 46.26 173 3 / 4
West Indies 12 449 32.07. 75* 0 / 2
Zimbabwe 9 530. 44.16 136. 2 / 1
Overall figures 113 7212 42.17 239 16 / 35
In FC cricket
254 matches
15687 runs
44.18 AVG
33 Centuries
89 Half Centuries
TOP SCORE : 239
Wickets:167
Bowling Average :36.52
In International Test Cricket
The only strong side against whom he has no century is South Africa.
113 matches
7212 runs
42.17 AVG
16 Centuries
35 Half Centuries
Top score of 239 against Pakistan
Wickets :32
Bowling Average :52.53 (a tad expensive)
Famous knocks:-
131 vs England, Lord’s, June 20-24 1996
128 vs England, Headingley, August 22-26, 2002
51 vs South Africa, Johannesburg, December 15-18 2006
87 vs South Africa, Kanpur, April 11-13 2008
102 vs Australia, Mohali, October 17-21 2008