Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Chandidas Ganguly,born 8 July 1972 is a former Indian test cricketer, and captain of the Indian national team. As of October 2008, he was India's most successful Test captain to date, winning 21 tests out of 49 tests he captained and leading India into the 2003 World Cup finals.An aggressive captain, Ganguly is credited with having nurtured the careers of many young players who played under him.

The left-handed Ganguly was a prolific One Day International batsman, with over 11,000 ODI runs to his credit.Despite ODI success, his Test place was often lost to younger players towards the later stages of his career. On October 7 2008, Ganguly announced that the Test series against Australia starting that month would be his last.Ganguly played his last first-class match on 21 December 2008.

Early life



The youngest son of Chandidas and Nirupa Ganguly, Ganguly was born on 8 July 1972 in Kolkata.His father ran a flourishing print business and was one of the richest men in Kolkata.He had a luxurious childhood and was nicknamed the Maharaja.Though he was asked to concentrate on his studies and not to play cricket, he was inspired to do so by his brother Snehasish Ganguly,an accomplished left-handed batsman for Bengal.Though he was actually right-handed, he batted left-handed so that he could use his brother's equipment.After he showed some promise as a batsman, he was enrolled in a cricket academy.An indoor multi-gym and concrete wicket was built at home for him and his brother, and he would often watch cricket videos, especially those of David Gower, whom he admired.After he scored a century against the Orissa U-15 side,he was made captain of St Xavier's School's cricket team,where several of his teammates complained against what they perceived to be his arrogance.One anecdote was that during a tour with a junior team, it was Ganguly's turn to be the twelth man, a substitute who can only field and whose role is usually to raise morale by supporting the playing XI by organising their spare equipment and drinks, and ferrying messages from the dressing room to the players. Ganguly purportedly refused to do such tasks as he considered it beneath his social status to assist his teammates in such a way.

Debut and early career



Following a prolific Ranji season in 1990-91,Ganguly made his One Day International debut for India against West Indies in 1992,and scored three runs.He was dropped immediately since he was perceived to be "arrogant" and his attitude towards the game was openly questioned.He toiled away in domestic cricket, scoring heavily in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons.Following an innings of 171 in the 1995-96 Duleep Trophy,he was recalled to the national side for the tour of England in 1996 amidst intense media scrutiny.He played in one ODI,but was omitted from the team for the first Test. However, after Navjot Sidhu left the touring party citing ill-treatment by the then captain Mohammed Azharuddin,made his Test debut at Lord's alongside Rahul Dravid, in what was umpire Dickie Bird's last Test.He scored a century, becoming only the third cricketer to score a century on debut at Lord's, after Harry Graham and John Hampshire. Andrew Strauss and Matt Prior have since accomplished this feat, but his 131 still remains the highest by any batsman on his debut at Lord's.In the next Test match at Trent Bridge he made 136, thus becoming only the 3rd batsman to make a century in each of his first two innings (after Lawrence Rowe and Alvin Kallicharran). He shared a 255 run stand with Sachin Tendulkar, which became at that time the highest partnership for India against any country for any wicket outside India.

Opening in ODIs



In 1997 Ganguly scored his maiden ODI century, opening the innings he scored 113, in his side's 238, against Sri Lanka. Later that year he won four consecutive man of the match awards in the Sahara Cup with Pakistan, the second of these was won after he took 5/16 off 10 overs, his best bowling in an ODI. After a barren run in Test cricket his form returned at the end of the year with three centuries in four Tests all against Sri Lanka two of these involved stands with Sachin Tendulkar of over 250.

In January 1998, in the final of the Independence Cup at Dhaka, against Pakistan, he scored 124 as India successfully chased down 315 off 48 overs, winning the Man of the match award. In March 1998 he was part of the India team that defeated Australia, his biggest impact came in Calcutta as he took three wickets having opened the bowling with his medium pace.

In the 1999 World Cup Ganguly scored 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton, Somerset in England. The innings took 158 balls and included 17 fours and 7 sixes. It is the second highest in World Cup history and the highest by an Indian in the tournament. His partnership of 318 with Rahul Dravid is the highest ever in the World Cup and is the second highest in all ODI cricket.

In 1999/00 India lost Test series to both Australia and South Africa in the five Tests. Ganguly 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 Ratings for batsmen.

Ascension to captaincy



In 2000, after the match fixing scandal, Ganguly was named the captain of the India team. In the Champions Trophy of that year he scored 2 centuries but his second in the final was in vain as New Zealand won by four wickets. In 2003 under his captaincy India reached the World Cup Final, where they lost to the Australians.

While he has achieved significant success as captain, his individual performance deteriorated during his captaincy, especially after successes in the World Cup, the tour of Australia in 2003 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. He remained active on the first-class cricket scene in hopes of a recall, but his performance was a mixed bag - he hit a couple of centuries in domestic cricket, but his English county stint in 2005 and subsequent appearances in the Challenger Trophy were failures.

Having been nominated and rejected in 2001 when the game suffered a tarnished reputation due to match fixing scadals,Ganguly was awarded the Padma Shri in 2004, one of India's highest awards.

In his tenure between 2000 and 2005, Ganguly became India's most successful Test captain. He led his team to victory on 21 occasions 7 more times than Mohammad 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 aerage as captain was a lower 37.66.The pressure of captaincy detracting from Ganguly's batting is also reflected in his ODI batting averages: 38.66 as captain compared to 43.16 when playing as a specialist batsman.In ODIs, he captained India 146 , emerging victorious on 76 occasions, second only to Azharuddin in both number of wins and number of matches as captain.

Comeback



Following India's poor batting display in the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and the ODI series in South Africa, in which they were whitewashed 4-0,Ganguly made his comeback to the Test team.Wasim Jaffer, Zaheer Khan and Anil Kumble had earlier been selected for the one-day squad,in what was seen as an indictment of coach Greg Chappell's youth-first policy.Coming in at 37/4, he scored 83 in a tour match against the Rest of South Africa, modifying his original batting style and taking a middle-stump guard,an innings that set up a victory for India.In his first Test innings since his comeback, against South Africa in Johannesburg, he scored 51 in a low scoring game, an innings that helped India win a Test match in South Africa for the first time.Though India went on to lose the series, he topped the run scroing charts for his side.

After his successful Test comeback he was recalled for the ODI team, as India played host to West Indies and Sri Lanka in back to back ODI tournaments. In his first ODI innings in almost 2 years,he scored a matchwinning 98.He performed creditably in both series, averaging almost 70 and won the Man of the Series Award against Sri Lanka.

2007 World Cup and aftermath


Following his good performance, Ganguly was named in the squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. He was the leading scorer for India in their first round defeat against Bangladesh.After India were knocked out of the tournament in the group stage, there were reports of a rift between certain members of the Indian team and their coach Greg Chappell. Ganguly, allegedly, ignored instructions from the team management to score quickly.After Sachin Tendulkar issued a statement saying that what hurt the team most was that "the coach has questioned our attitude", Chappell decided not to renew his contract with the Indian team.

On 12 December 2007, Ganguly scored his maiden double century of his career while playing against Pakistan in the first innings of the third and final Test match of the series. He was involved in a 300 run partnership for the 5th wicket along with Yuvraj Singh - a much needed partnership that saved India which was struggling at 61 for the fall of four wickets. He later went on to score 239 before being dismissed by Danish Kaneria.

On 18 April 2008, Ganguly led the Kolkata Knight Riders team owned by Shah Rukh Khan in the IPL Twenty20 cricket match to a 140 run victory over Bangalore Royal Challengers led by Rahul Dravid and owned by Vijay Mallya. Ganguly opened the innings with Brendan McCullum and scored 10 runs while his partner Brendan McCullum remained unbeaten blasting his way to a record 158* runs in 73 balls. On 1 May in a game between the Knight Riders and the Rajasthan Royals, Ganguly made his highest score of the season and his second T20 half century, scoring 51 runs off of 39 balls at a strike rate of 130.76. In his innings, Ganguly hit four 4s and two sixes, topping the scorers list for the Knight Riders.

Ganguly has been prolific in both Test and ODI cricket in the year 2007. He scored 1106 Test runs at an average of 61.44 (with three centuries and four fifties) in 2007 to become the second highest run-scorer in Test matches of that year after Jacques Kallis. He is the fifth highest rungetter in 2007 in ODIs,where he scored 1240 runs at 44.28.

Retirement from International Cricket



On 7 October 2008, Ganguly announced that the Test series against Australia starting in October 2008 would be his last and stated "to be honest, I didn't expect to be picked for this series". Ganguly played in every game of the four-Test series, repaying the selectors faith in him by amassing 324 runs at an average of 54.00.In his last innings, he was dismissed for duck off just one ball. India won the series 2-0, and in the final match, with India needing one wicket to secure a victory, the India captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, allowed Ganguly to lead the side in the field one last time.

Playing Style



Sourav Ganguly was a left-handed batsman whose runs came primarily from the off-side. Throughout his career, he played off-side shots such as the square cut, square drive and cover drive with elegance and complete command. Early in his career he was not comfortable with the hook and pull, often giving his wicket away with mistiming such shots. He was also criticized for having difficulty in handling short pitched balls and bouncers, notoriously exploited by the Australians and South Africans. However, after his comeback in 2007, he worked upon these weaknesses to a large extent. He used to hit powerful shots to the off-side on front and back foot with equal ease.

In One Day Internationals, where he usually opened the innings, he used to try to take the advantage of fielding restrictions by advancing down the pitch and hitting pace bowlers over extra cover and mid-off. He was also notorious for attacking left arm spin bowlers. Due to excellent hand-eye coordination, he was noted for picking the length of the ball early, coming down the pitch and hitting the ball aerially over mid-on or midwicket, often for a six. However, he did have a weakness in running between the wickets and judging quick singles. There were many instances where Ganguly's batting partner was run out due to Ganguly's calling for a run, and then sending him back while halfway down the pitch. Ganguly was also an unagile player, and compounded this with a reputation for lazy running between the wickets. In one ODI against Australia, he took a single when on 99, but he coasted and did not ground his bat. Although it was past the crease, it was in the air and he was run out.

Ganguly was a right arm medium pace bowler. He could swing and seam the ball both ways and often chips in with useful wickets to break partnerships. Despite not being very athletic as a fielder, Ganguly has taken 100 catches in one-day Internationals. However, his ground fielding, especially his slowness in intercepting the ball to prevent runs is the subject of much derision.

Records



Ganguly is the seventh Indian cricketer to have played 100 Test matches.He is currently the 4th highest overall run scorer for India in Tests.He is the fourth Indian to have played in more than 300 One Day Internationals.In terms of overall runs scored in ODIs, Ganguly is the second among Indians after Sachin Tendulkar (who has the highest ODI runs in the world) and the fourth in the world.Ganguly 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.Ganguly has 22 centuries in ODIs, in terms of number of centuries in ODIs, he is only behind Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Ricky Ponting. Sourav, along with Sachin Tendulkar, formed by far the most successful opening pair in One Day Cricket, having amassed the highest number of century partnerships for the first wicket. Together, they have scored more than 7000 runs at an average of 48.98, now with Sachin he is a world record holder for creating most no. of 50 run partnership in the first wicket(44 fifties).

Ganguly is the fourth player to cross 11,000 ODI runs and third player to cross 10,000 ODI runs and so far the fastest in ODI history, after Sachin Tendulkar. He also reached 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000 ODI runs milestones in the fewest number of matches. Sourav can bowl medium-pacers as well, taking 31 wickets in 99 matches, at an average of 52.47. 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 3 players in the world to achieve amazing treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket history, the others being Sachin Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya.

Test

* Captained India in a record 49 Test matches
* Led India to a record 21 Test wins
* His Test average has never been less than 40.

ODIs

* Hold the record of most 200+ 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+ runs (7 times).
* Holds the record, shared with Mahendra Singh Dhoni, for the second highest score by an Indian cricketer in an ODI 183, against Sri Lanka in 1999.
* Held the record, shared with Sachin Tendulkar, for the highest first wicket partnership for India in an ODI match, 258, against Kenya in 2001. This record was bettered by Sri Lankan opening pair of Jayasuriya and Tharanga in 2006 at Headingley.
* Was involved in the first 300 run ODI partnership with Rahul Dravid.
* Sixth on the all time list with 31 man of the match awards.
* He is also the only player to win 4 consecutive man of the match awards in ODIs.
* India's most successful ODI captain.
* First Indian to score an ODI century against Australia in Australia.
* Highest ODI runs 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 ever. 7 centuries in 2000.

Rahul Dravid

Rahul Dravid, born Jan. 11, 1973, is an Indian cricketer and a former captain of the Indian national cricket team. A regular member since 1986, Dravid is the third Indian batsman, after Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, to have scored 10,000 runs in test cricket. On Feb. 14, 2007, he became the sixth player in history and the third Indian since Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly to score 10,000 runs in ODI cricket.

In September 2007, he resigned as captain of India team. He is the captain as well as the Icon Player in the Royal Challengers Bangalore team in the Indian Premier League.

Is Rahul Dravid not a top batsman?

According to ICC, "The Wall," as he's known, did not deserve to be placed above the 30th rank in the new “Best Ever” ratings issued by the board. Whereas Kumara Sangakara, Matthew Hayden, Mike Hussey, Kevin Pietersen and Neil Harvey could easily find a berth for themselves in the Top 29. "The Master Blaster" Sachin is also not in the Top 20. Even he got the rank of 26th, according to ICC's all-time best test batsman rankings.



Rahul Dravid Comeback in Test Team



After a barren run in test matches in 2008, Dravid came under increasing media pressure to retire or be dropped. In the second test against England in Mohali, he scored 136, putting on a triple-century stand with Gautam Gambhir. This ton helped his team draw the test and clinched the series 1-0 against England.



"The Wall's" Personal Life



Dravid was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh into a Maharashtrian Deshastha family living in Karnataka. His paternal ancestors were Iyers from Thanjavur. He grew up in Bangalore, Karnataka. He speaks Marathi and Kannada. He has a younger brother, Vijay. Both the brothers grew up in a serious and simple middle-class atmosphere.

Dravid's father worked for Kissan Products Ltd., a company known for jams and preserves;thus he earned the nickname "Jammy" from his teammates at St. Joseph's, Bangalore. And his mother, Pushpa, was a professor of Architecture at Bangalore University.

Dravid has a degree in Commerce from St Joseph's College of Commerce Bangalore, Karnataka. On May 4, 2003, Dravid married Dr. Vijeta Pendharkar, a surgeon from Nagpur , and on Oct. 11, 2005, their son, Samit, was born.



"The Wall" in IPL



Rahul Dravid is the captain and icon player of the Bangalore Royal Challengers, owned by Vijay Mallya. But his team did not do well in the first season of the IPL tournament and came in last place. It's not yet known whether Dravid will lead the team or not this season.



Honours of Rahul Dravid - The wall



In 2004, Rahul was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

On Sept. 7, 2004, Dravid was awarded the inaugural Player of the Year Award and the Test Player of the Year by the International Cricket Council, or ICC .

In the 2005 ICC Awards, Rahul Dravid was the only Indian to be named to the World One-Day XI.



Rahul's Personality



Rahul has been one of the main pillars of the Indian, batting with his blend of technical proficiency and stylish strokes. His strokes are so technically-sound, that he is called "the wall" of the Indian team. His batting style was regarded as slow for the ODI’s initially, but with his imaginative placing of the ball and innovative strokes, he made himself an integral part of the Indian team for both tests as well as ODI’s.

His temperament for both versions of the game is exemplary and has earned him respect from all the other players. He was verily the batsman of the 1999 World Cup with two hundreds and the highest aggregate. For this, he was named as Wisden Cricketer of the Year—one of the few Indians to receive this special accolade. His good, innocent looks make him very popular among the girls.

For sheer consistency, Dravid has few equals and has maintained a Test career average of over 50. His temperament is exemplary, his concentration legendary. A batsman who revels in a crisis, Dravid, against New Zealand in January 1999, joined the ranks of Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar as one of only three Indians to have scored a century in each innings in a test.

The poor run in Australia in 1999-2000 was only a passing phase, and he returned to top form the next season, including notching up his first double century in tests. Named as "The Wall" for obvious reasons, the modest, unassuming, and well-behaved Dravid is one of the most popular and instantly recognizable players in the cricket world.



Early years of cricket



Dravid started playing cricket at the age of 12, and represented the state at the under-15, under-17, and under-19 level. Dravid's talents were first spotted by former cricketer Keki Tarapore, who was coaching at a summer coaching camp at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He went on to score a century in the debut for his school team. Along with the batting, he was keeping wickets. However, he later stopped keeping wickets on advice from former test players Gundappa Vishwanath, Roger Binny, Brijesh Patel and Tarapore.

Rahul was selected to make his Ranji Trophy debut in February 1991 against Maharashtra in Pune (while still attending college at St. Joseph's College of Commerce in Bangalore), alongside future Indian teammates Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath, scoring 82 in a draw after batting in the No. 7 position.

His first full season was in 1991-92, when he scored two centuries to finish with 380 runs at an average of 63.3, and was selected for south zone in the Duleep Trophy.



International Career of Dravid



Dravid had a disappointing start to his career, making his debut in one-dayers against the Sri Lankan cricket team in Singapore, immediately after the World Cup in March 1996 where he replaced Vinod Kambli. Subsequently, he was dropped from the team, until he was picked again for the tour of England.

He then made his debut in the second test against England, along with Sourav Ganguly, when Sanjay Manjrekar got injured after the first test match on that tour. Rahul scored 95 and held his position on Manjrekar's return for the third test, scoring 84.

After moderate performance in home series against Australia and South Africa, Dravid broke through on the 1996-97 tour of South Africa. He batted at No. 3 in the third test in Johannesburg, scoring his maiden century with 148 and 81, the top score in each innings, to claim his first Man of the Match Award at 19. He made his first half-century against Pakistan in the Sahara Cup in 1996, scoring 90 in his 10th ODI.

In the 18 months ending in mid-1998, he played in an away series against the West Indies, home and an away series against Sri Lanka, and a home series against Australia. He scored consistently, with 964 runs at an average of 56.7. He scored 11 half-centuries, but was unable to convert them to triple figures.

He scored his second century in late 1998 against Zimbabwe in a one-off test match, top scoring in both innings with 148 and 44, but was unable to prevent an Indian defeat. He became the third Indian batsman after Vijay Hazare and Sunil Gavaskar to score centuries in both innings of a match during the 1999 New Year's test match against New Zealand with 190 and 103 to force a draw .

He had a moderate season in the subcontinent in early 1999, scoring 269 runs at an average of 38.42 with one century before scoring 239 at an average of 39.8, including a century against New Zealand in late 1999. This was followed by a poor away series against Australia and another poor home series against South Africa, accumulating just 187 runs at an average of 18.7.

He then scored 200, his first double century against Zimbabwe in Delhi, which along with 70 in the second inning helped India to victory. It was the first time he had passed 50 in 12 months, and he followed this with a 162 in the following test, giving him 432 runs in the two match series at an average of 432.

In the second test of a three-match test series against Australia at Kolkata in 2001, Dravid joined hands with VVS Laxman to produce one of the greatest comeback victories in the history of the game. Following on, the pair put on 376 runs for the fifth wicket in the second innings of the match. Dravid scored 180 while Laxman made 281. Though Dravid ended up second best, it remains one of his greatest performances to date.

Later that year in Port Elizabeth against South Africa, he made a crucial match-saving 87 runs in the second innings to deny South Africa the win.

Dravid started to emerge out of Tendulkar's shadow and established himself as India's premier test batsman in 2002. In the month of April, at Georgetown, West Indies in the first test match of the series, he scored an unbeaten 144 in the first innings after being hit by a Mervyn Dillon delivery.

Later that year, he raked up four consecutive centuries against England and West Indies. In August 2002, against England at Headingley Stadium, Leeds in the third test match of the series, he scored a 148 in the first innings on a seamer-friendly to set up a famous Indian win. He won the Man of the Match Award for this performance.

Dravid's astonishing aggregate of 602 runs in the four match test series against England also fetched him the Man of the Series Award. In 2003-2004 season, Dravid scored three double centuries, one each against New Zealand, Australia, and Pakistan. Against Australia in the second match of the four match series, the batting pair of Dravid and VVS Laxman proved to be Australia's nemesis.

In the first innings, India was looking down the barrel at four wickets, down for 85 runs in reply to Australia's massive 556 when the duo joined hands. By the time their partnership was broken, the pair had put on 303 runs. Laxman was dismissed for 148 while Dravid went on to make 233. At that time, this was the highest individual score by an Indian batsman overseas.

By the time Dravid was done, India was only 33 short of Australia's first innings score.

Dravid followed this with an unbeaten 72 under immense pressure in the second innings to set up a famous victory. Dravid scored 619 runs in that four match series against Australia at an average of 103.16, and won the Man of the Series Award. During the latter part of the season, Dravid, in Ganguly's absence, led India to its first test victory over Pakistan in the first test match at Multan.

In the third and final match of the series at Rawalpindi, Dravid stroked a masterful 270, to take India to a historic test series win over Pakistan.



Rahul Career Heights



With a strong technique, he has been the backbone for the Indian cricket team. His nickname of "The Wall" in Reebok advertisements has now become a tribute to his consistency.

Dravid has scored 26 centuries in test cricket, at an average of 53.11, including five double centuries. In one-dayers, though, he has an average of 39.49 and a strike rate of 71.22. He is one of the few Indians who averages more at away matches than at home, averaging over 10 more runs a match abroad than on Indian pitches.

As of Aug. 9, 2006, Dravid's average in overseas tests stood at 65.28, against his overall test average of 55.41, and his average for away ODI stands at 42.03, against his overall ODI average of 39.49. In matches that India has won, Dravid averages 78.72 in tests and 53.40 in ODIs.

Dravid's sole test wicket was that of Ridley Jacobs in the fourth test against the West Indies during the 2001-2002 series. While he has no pretensions to being a bowler, Dravid often kept wicket for India in ODIs. He has since delegated the wicket-keeping gloves, first to Parthiv Patel and more recently to Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dravid is now purely a batsman, one who has averaged 63.51 in matches played since Jan. 1, 2000.

Dravid was involved in two of the largest partnerships in ODIs—a 318-run partnership with Sourav Ganguly, the first pair to combine for a 300-run partnership, and then a 331-run partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, which is the present world record. He also holds the record for the greatest number of innings since debut, before being dismissed for a duck.

His highest scores in ODIs and tests are 153 and 270, respectively. Uniquely, each of his five double centuries in tests was a higher score than his previous double century (200, 217, 222, 233, 270).

Also, Dravid is the current world record holder for the highest percentage contribution of runs scored in matches won under a single captain, where the captain has won more than 20 tests. In the 21 test matches India won under Sourav Ganguly's leadership, Dravid played his part in every single one of those wins, scoring at a record average of 102.84 and piling up an astonishing 2571 runs, with nine hundreds—three of them double-centuries—and 10 fifties in 32 innings.

He contributed nearly 23 percent of the total runs scored by India in those 21 matches, which is almost one run out of every four runs the team scored.



Dravid downfall



After the England series however, he stepped down as captain of India due to personal reasons. Mahendra Singh Dhoni took over as ODI captain. Anil Kumble replaced him in test matches.

In 2007, he was dropped from the Indian ODI Squad following a poor series against Australia. Dravid went back to play for Karnataka in the Ranji Trophy, scoring 218 against Mumbai.

In 2008, he made 93 in the first innings of the Perth test, the highest score of the match, to help India win and make the series 1-2. However, he was ignored by selectors for the subsequent one-day tri-series.



Criticism



One of Dravid's most debated decisions was taken in March 2004, when he was standing in as captain for an injured Sourav Ganguly. The Indian's first innings was declared at a point when Sachin Tendulkar was at 194 with 16 overs remaining on day two.

Rahul Dravid has had a mixed record when leading India in Tests. India lost the Karachi test in 2006, giving Pakistan the series 1-0. In March 2006, India lost the Mumbai test, giving England its first test victory in India since 1985, enabling Flintoff's men to draw the series 1-1.

While the loss in Karachi could be put down to several Indian batsmen playing badly, the defeat in Mumbai was arguably the result of Dravid's decision to bowl first on a flat dry pitch which later deteriorated and ended with an Indian collapse in the run chase.

He was criticised by Vijay Mallya for not picking the team with right balance since Dravid's team Bangalore Royal Challengers was the second to last team in the 2008 Indian Premier League.

After India failed to qualify for the finals of the DLF Cup, Indian skipper Rahul Dravid was criticised by former all-rounder Ravi Shastri who said that he was not assertive enough and let Greg Chappell make too many decisions.