Tuesday 5th August 2008
Ganguly under pressure to perform
Indian cricket's comeback man Sourav Ganguly is under pressure as he struggles to put bat to ball in the Sri Lanka series.
By Ranabir Majumdar
In fact, the former captain has been without a fifty in his last eight innings away from home, his highest being 23 against Sri Lanka in the first Test of the ongoing series at the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo.
In the Test matches Ganguly has played so far this year, his scoring has been abysmal. The man, who stunned everyone with his fantastic knocks when he made his comeback after a year-long gap in the 2006-07 series against South Africa, is now a pale shadow of his former self.
Earlier this year in Australia, he scored nine and zero in the two innings of the Perth Test and followed that up with seven and 18 at Adelaide.
In the present series against Sri Lanka, he has managed to score just 43 runs at an average of 10.75. His scores read 23 and four in the first Test and zero and 16 in the second. Ganguly is also without a fifty in his last nine innings against Sri Lanka.
His performance in the three-Test home series against South Africa was also nothing to write home about with just two notable performances from five innings.
With his performance in the Galle Test, Ganguly's batting average this year has dropped below 30 - 406 runs (average of 29.00) in 15 innings.
Known for dancing down the track and hoicking the spinners out of the park, Ganguly has been done in by the spin duo of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis and the third Test at Colombo that starts on Friday is his last chance to exact revenge and keep his place intact.
The 'Prince of Kolkata' has more often than not come roaring back when the chips were down and when no one expected him to be able to come back. But now with the southpaw already out of the scheme of things from the one-day international and twenty20 international setup, Ganguly could well face the long walk back home instead of the glorious farewell he would have liked.
He needs to step up and take the fight to the Lankan spinners. He needs to find his deft touch and sweet timing. The time is now!
