Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly believes that he can still score runs in Tests if he trains for six months and play a few Ranji matches.
His comments come while talking about the last leg of his career to Bengali newspaper Sangbad Pratidin.
“If I was given two more series in ODIs, I would’ve scored more runs. If I hadn’t retired in Nagpur, I would’ve scored runs in the next two Test series too. In fact even now give me six months to train, let me play three Ranji games, I’ll score runs for India in Test cricket. I don’t even need six months, give me three, I will score runs,”said Ganguly.
“You might not give me an opportunity to play but how will you break the belief inside me?”asked the former India captain.
Ganguly also talked about, when he was dropped from ODI side after being best performer in 2007-08.
“It was kind of unbelievable. I was dropped from the ODI side despite being one of the highest scorers of that calendar year. No matter how good your performance is if the stage is taken away from you then what will you prove? And to whom? The same thing happened with me,” Ganguly added.
Ganguly was initially dropped from the side in 2005 in the Greg Chappell era. He then made a comeback in 2006 and went on to play for the country till 2008.
Ganguly scored 7212 runs in 113 Tests at an average of 42.17 with 16 centuries. In ODIs, he scored 11363 runs in 311 matches at an average of 41.02.
Graeme Smith Praises “DADA”:
Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith, however, believes that Ganguly would have benefitted a lot more from having a player like Dhoni in his team.
Speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Smith discussed ODI captaincy record of Ganguly and Dhoni, “The biggest difference between Dada’s captaincy and MS’s captaincy is MS, the player for me. I think in that middle order, the ability to close games, win games, finish games in that calm that he brought to the people around him. I think for me, that is probably the biggest difference between the two heroes, is MS Dhoni.
If Dada had an MS type player, his team was slightly more developed, I think you would have seen him win plenty more trophies. Dada was blessed to play or not blessed to play in an era where Australian cricket was at the forefront and dominating the world game as well which at the time the team had won the most during that period.”
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