Still Good Enough to Play for India, Need Three Months of Training: Sourav Ganguly

Former India captain and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly said he can score runs in Test cricket again if he trains for three months and plays a few Ranji Trophy matches.

Ganguly, who last played for India 12 years ago in 2008 and his last first-class match was in 2011, said he is fit enough to score runs in Test cricket if given time to train.

Ganguly’s words came while recollecting the last phase of his career in an interview with 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.

The former India captain said he was dropped unceremoniously from the ODI side despite being one of the top performers in the 2007-08 season.

“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.

The former India captain was dropped from the Indian side after being stripped of the captaincy during the Greg Chappell era in 2005. The left-hander made a strong comeback in the South Africa series in 2006 and then went on to score tons of runs, making many including Sachin Tendulkar said that was the best they had seen Ganguly bat.

The former India opener however was dropped from the ODIs along with Rahul Dravid for the Australia tour in 2007-08. A year later, Ganguly announced his retirement from international cricket.

The former captain, however, continued to ply his trade in domestic cricket and in the IPL till 2012.

Ganguly scored 7212 runs in 113 Tests at an average of 42.17 with 16 centuries to his name. In ODIs, Ganguly has 11363 runs in 311 matches at an average of 41.02 with 22 hundred.

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