COCHIN, April 2: Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly’s batting woes increased Saturday even as India started the six-match one-day against Pakistan with a commanding victory.
Ganguly was dismissed for a first-ball duck by pace bowler Rana Navedul Hasan as he failed to execute a leg-glance. Ganguly didn’t seem to know where his leg-stump was, and was horrified to turn around and see it tumbling – reducing India to a nervous four for two wickets in the second over.
Ganguly, 32, said he is very disappointed with his own batting form, and realizes that he must gets some runs soon.
“I’ve been struggling and it has been five-six innings now,” said Ganguly. “I know that I need to put some runs on the board.”
Critics have been slamming Ganguly for continuing to cling to a top-order batting slot despite his increasing string of poor scores, but the captain on Saturday said he won’t take a break to strike form.
“I won’t get runs sitting at home, I’d better perform in the middle,” said Ganguly, who has been flayed by critics for blocking the way of young batsmen.
Beleaguered skipper Ganguly is just 64 runs short of joining the exclusive club of batsmen who have scored 10,000 runs in One-day Internationals, but his poor run of form during the just concluded Test series against Pakistan made critics dub him as the weakest link in India’s line-up.
Ganguly’s 48 runs from five innings during Test series left him with a miserable batting average of 9.6.
On Friday, Ganguly said he was aware of the significance to make his bat silence the critics.
“I’m the captain and it’s important that I perform well with the bat ... I will do it,” Ganguly had said on the eve of Saturday’s match.
India’s Sachin Tendulkar and Pakistan skipper Inzamamul Haq are the only batsmen to have scored over 10,000 runs in One-day Internationals. Tendulkar has compiled 13,501 runs in 343 one-dayers and Inzamam has made 10,668 in 337, while Ganguly is lying third with 9,936 from 268 matches.
Ganguly’s 22 limited-overs centuries are second behind Tendulkar’s 37 in One-day International cricket.—Agencies
