Sourav Ganguly who changed the outlook of Indian cricket, in an interaction revealed which five he would pick from the current squad for his Test team. The current BCCI president hesitated a bit initially but gave his names in an interview with Mayank Agarwal on BCCI’s show.
Ganguly chooses his favourites from current Test team
Sourav Ganguly turned 48 on Wednesday. Dada, as he lovingly called was famous for his aggressive captaincy. He built a fine Indian side mixing experience and youth together. Under him Indian team reached new hights and the dimension of Indian cricket changed gradually. In case of longer format, Ganguly led India to some memorable wins and the tradition is being continued pretty well by Virat Kohli now. Ganguly’s team has some of the stalwarts of Indian cricket like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, and Zaheer Khan. So when he was asked to choose five among the current Indian cricketers for his Test squad, it was a tough one for the Bengal Tiger.
He told Mayank Agarwal. “It is a tough question as every generation the players are different. In your current team, I would have loved to had Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the side. I would not pick you (Mayank) as I had Virender Sehwag. I’ll go for Bumrah as I had Zaheer at the other end. I would also go for Mohammad Shami after Javagal Srinath retired. I had Harbhajan and Anil Kumble in my side, so Ashwin would be my third spinner. I would be tempted to have Ravindra Jadeja also.”
Players for the 2003 Team India
In the latest episode of ‘Open Nets with Mayank’ for BCCI website, former India captain further revealed which three cricketers from India’s 2019 World Cup campaign he would have loved to include in his 2003 Team India.
Ganguly explained, “(Virat) Kohli, Rohit Sharma and (Jasprit) Bumrah The quality of fast bowler (Bumrah). We played in South Africa, although we bowled exceptionally well in that series. Bumrah, Rohit, and Virat would be in the middle. Rohit at the top, and I at no. 3. I don’t know maybe Sehwag might be listening to this and I would get a phone call tomorrow, ‘what the hell do you think’. But I would have these three in the squad.”
