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Dada set to play
his 300th ODI |
 Sourav
Ganguly is all set to play his 300th One Day
International on Sunday at Headingley. The
former Indian Skipper would become the ninth
player in the history of the game on Sunday to
have played 300 ODIs if at all he does play the
fifth One Dayer at Leeds. The question of 'if'
arises as Dada had missed the nets session
yesterday and had stayed back in the hotel
because of not being well. India are already
without Zaheer Khan most certainly for the fifth
One Dayer that is going to be a do-or-die match
for them.
Ganguly would be the
fourth Indian to play 300 ODIs following Sachin
Tendulkar (392), Mohammad Azharuddin (334) and
Rahul Dravid (324). Interestingly there was a
time when Rahul Dravid was kept out of the team
saying that his game wasn't suitable for the One
Dayers. Ganguly could have easily got to 300
ODIs well before Dravid but in 2005, the
Southpaw was continuously kept away from the
team because of Greg Chappell's influence as
being the Coach of the Indian team. Ganguly did
force his way back into the side and has
consistently scored runs but the criticism of
late has been his sedate scoring rate and the
lack of rotating the strike to keep the scoring
busy.
In the ongoing NatWest
Series, Sourav Ganguly has been dismissed
cheaply two times and the other two times got
himself to a start. In the 3rd ODI at Edgbaston,
Ganguly top scored with 72 but the problem for
India was that it took him 103 balls at a time
when Indian was chasing more than six runs per
over in their chase of 282. The 35-year-old had
also passed the milestone of passing 11,000 runs
in his ODI career during this ongoing series.
Ganguly still has another 3 more matches to go
to actually play his 300th ODI for India as he
had recently also turned out for AsiaXI.
Ganguly's first ODI dates back to 1992 when he
had played just the one game against West Indies
in the Benson and Hedges World Series. After
almost being a forgotten name in Indian Cricket,
Ganguly came back strongly in 1996 on the tour
of England and since then never ever looked
back. The only time one thought that his career
was over was in 2005 during Chappell's tenure
but Dada kept faith in his abilities to return
back to put away any rumours suggesting about
his retirement.
List of players who crossed 300 ODIs (Till Date)
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