Sourav Ganguly could have been better in Tests if he batted up the order: Dilip Vengsarkar

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly is one of the most celebrated cricketers in the country. The southpaw brought about a revolution in the Indian team and changed the way the game was played with his aggressive captaincy. Sourav Ganguly is still India’s third-highest run and century scorer in ODIs behind Sachin Tendulkar and current captain Virat Kohli, with 11363 runs and 22 hundreds in 311 matches. 

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Dilip Vengsarkar makes huge claim about Sourav Ganguly's Test career

However, his performances in Tests often got overshadowed by his ODI performances. But when looked upon closely, his Tests average (42.17) is more than the ODI average (41.02). Speaking about the same, former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar has made a huge claim saying that Sourav Ganguly would have fared even better if he had batted higher up the order in Test cricket.

While speaking to The Times of India, Dilip Vengsarkar said that he always believed Sourav Ganguly would have done better in Test cricket had he batted higher in the order. He also pointed out his innings at Brisbane in 2003 against Australia and called it a 'class act'. Sourav Ganguly played at No. 5 in 99 innings out of his 188 in Test cricket, which is more than 50%. His average falls drastically to 37.39 while batting at No.5 as compared to his career average of 42.17.

In fact, Ganguly had made his Test debut batting at No.3 for India in a Test match at Lord's in 1996 and scored a hundred in his maiden innings. He added another hundred in the next Test match of the same series against England. All of Ganguly's 16 Test hundreds have either come in an Indian win or a draw, but never in a defeat.

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Dilip Vengsarkar also lauded Sourav Ganguly's ability to tackle spinners. He further said that Sourav Ganguly was a terrific player against spinners and added that he relished playing shots on the offside. Dilip Vengsarkar also termed Sourav Ganguly as a very good student of the game and good at man-management, who led India with great success.

Sourav Ganguly is often termed as the best-ever captain to have led the Indian team. Recently, former England captain Nasser Hussain who played a lot of cricket against the southpaw, rated the current BCCI President as the man who changed Indian cricket.

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Greg Chappell’s coaching stint and rift with Sourav Ganguly

Greg Chappell was appointed as India’s coach in May 2005 and held the top job until the team’s early exit from the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies. During his two-year tenure, ironically, it was his working relationship with Sourav Ganguly that became a subject of negative public and media commentary.

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IMAGE COURTESY: ICC TWITTER