Friday, December 14, 2007

Sourav Ganguly set to play 100th Test in Australia

Sourav Ganguly set to play 100th Test in Australia


Sourav Ganguly poses with the Man-of-the-series trophy after the third and last Test match between India and Pakistan at Bangalore

His place in the Test team wasn’t an established one a year ago. Sourav Ganguly, who has made one of the most remarkable comebacks by an Indian batsman in contemporary cricket, will be the ‘man to target’ when the Aussies gear up to bowl fierce bouncers at the Indian batsman when the Border-Gavaskar Trophy gets underway on December 26.

Ganguly was the man-of-the-series in the recently concluded Test series against arch rivals Pakistan. The former Indian captain told an Indian News channel that he missed out on a lot more hundreds in his Test career due to the reason that he batted at no.5 and no.6 for the majority of his stint with the Indian team.

He said that it was a positive sign that the team was producing good wicket-keeper batsmen like Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik who have helped the likes of Ganguly and Laxman to score more hundreds, batting at 5 and 6 respectively in the order.

The left-hander, who scored his maiden double hundred in the Bangalore Test and was the top run-getter in the series against Pakistan, said going up the order helped his batting. Ganguly also scored his maiden Test hundred in front of home fans at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

The batsman received a grand facilitation ceremony when he arrived in Kolkata with former Bengal cricket Gopal Bose presenting him with a photograph showing Ganguly jumping in joy after completing the hundred in the Kolkata Test.

Sourav Ganguly will become the seventh Indian in history to appear in 100 Tests during the Boxing Day Test match against Australia. It will be a fantastic milestone for the former captain, especially since the left-hander takes lot of pride playing against Australia and will be a prime figure when the Tests get underway.

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