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When Sourav Ganguly Silenced His Critics With A Century On Test Debut At Lord's

Jatin

Sourav Ganguly scored a hundred on Test debut [Source: @ICC/x.com]Sourav Ganguly scored a hundred on Test debut [Source: @ICC/x.com]

Back in 1996, when India toured England, not many gave Sourav Ganguly a real chance. The whispers were loud, the media wasn’t kind and the selectors seemed unsure.

Many believed he was in the team because of his family links in the Bengal cricket circle. But all of that changed the moment he walked into Lord’s and smashed a debut century that shut down all the noise in one go.

Sourav Ganguly Announced Himself With A Lord’s Century On Test Debut

The story goes that on a previous tour to Australia, Sourav Ganguly reportedly refused to be the twelfth man. Whether that’s fact or faction, what is clear is that something had shifted in him by the time this England tour rolled around. He wasn’t here to warm benches or serve energy drinks. He was here to play, to fight and to earn his spot the hard way.

Even before the first Test, Ganguly had made waves in the warm-up games. But the management still benched him at Edgbaston. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise because the pitch there wasn’t the easiest to bat on. Instead, destiny handed him Lord’s and the rest is now a golden page in Indian cricket history.

With his hundred at Lord’s, Ganguly joined the rare company of Harry Graham and John Hampshire, the only other batters to score a debut Test ton at the ground. But make no mistake, Ganguly’s innings stood out. He played each ball on merit, showed patience, elegance and maturity far beyond his years

Even umpire Dickie Bird, a legend in his own right, made a crucial call in Ganguly’s favour, spotting that a Chris Lewis delivery had brushed the shoulder, not the glove. Nine out of ten umpires might have gotten that wrong. But Ganguly had luck on his side and made full use of it.

[Source: @ICC/x.com][Source: @ICC/x.com]


India Found Its Prince Of Kolkata At The Mecca of Cricket

There was something poetic about Ganguly’s technique: the flair of a left-hander, the ease against seam, the calm under pressure. Many forget that Calcutta pitches offer plenty of movement and maybe that helped shape Ganguly’s game against the swinging Dukes ball. 

The region hadn't produced a Test batting great since Pankaj Roy but Ganguly changed that narrative forever. His gritty knock at Derby, just before the Lord’s Test, showed signs of what was coming. He was hungry, focused and ready to answer every critic the best way a batter can: with his bat.

India had a weird history with debut centurions who faded away. But Ganguly, much like Azharuddin before him, wasn’t going to be a one-hit wonder. You could sense from that Lord’s knock that this guy had more centuries in the tank.

While Ganguly walked off after scoring 131 off 301 balls with 20 fours, another debutant Rahul Dravid fell heartbreakingly close at 95. Still, between them, they gave India its best chance to win the match by posting 429 in response to England’s 344. 

If not for poor tactics and the usual self-doubt that haunted Indian teams in that era, the match was there for the taking but it eventually ended in a draw. 

But Ganguly’s hundred was a turning point for him, for Indian cricket and for an entire generation that would soon come to call Dada their captain, leader and fighter-in-chief.