I salute Dada !

[Ram]

Some good performances from Ganguly off late. He has hit 8 50's in the last 12 matches and India has won 9 of them. Some people say he has been batting slow. It doesnt matter how he plays , as long as India wins. You have to admire this man. Villified , ridiculed , dropped from the team a year ago, he has made one of THE best comebacks in ths history of Cricket. I remember, during the times he wasnt in the team he kept sayin - " I still have a couple of years of cricket left in me" . He has vindicated himself. Wonder what he is doing right though. Here was a man , at one point , couldnt put bat to ball and was a walking wicket. Now he looks quite solid. Personally i have noticed that he plays much closer to his body nowadays. Any of you guys have noticed any other changes?

[Dhondy]

Very well said, Sriram. I salute him too, for his self belief, his mental fortitude, his never-say-die attitude when his career seemed to be all but over. Those are the qualities that make a man, any man.

[King]

Same here he has been fantastic since his comeback. He has scored runs whenever he has had an opportunity. I think he has been the most consistent in the Indian team for the last few months. I'm glad he is among runs. At times you wonder why this fella's 80+ won't catch news but a Tendulkar's low score does :wink_smile: It's all up in the head in international cricket IMO. If you feel good physically and mentally you can always score runs. When you find it hard to cope with low scores then comes the self doubts. Ganguly has always been pretty tough mentally although not your perfect batsman. It's always great to make a comeback and do well. That only reassures he is good enough to handle the pressure. That only makes him that much tougher. The best that happened to him was being dropped. I think Sehwag will come back tougher too after having been dropped. It kind of puts a bit of zeal to stage a come back and if the player has a positive outlook to life he will work towards his comeback.

[dhruvdeepak]

he was great in the Tests in SA. nothing heroic about his return to odis - of his 12 matches on comeback, 3 against Bangla, 1 vs Ireland and 1 vs Bermuda. The rest were on the lovely flat tracks of India. I just dont think he fits in the ODI scheme - we dont need a guy to scratch around for runs. We need the Ganguly of old, charging big fast bowlers and whacking them over the offside field - and yes do this outside India.

[jf1gp_1]

He was selfish to begin with, he is worst now. Lets see what he does against SA.

[Cricketics]

O YAA, old bloody good dayz are coming.. when gang use to hit those mighty shots.. seriously man what a torture he faced.. all his fans, the whole of India for once wanted ganguly to be dropped.. he came back so stronglly... hope he continues and play this same way in other coming games.. Hail the Bengali Prince

[Gambit]

He's done well but I'd like him to score a bit quicker in ODIs.

[yoda]

he is useless. will fail against better teams when we need him the most.

[suraj]

he is useless. will fail against better teams when we need him the most.

Come on you can't dismiss him like this- you have to admire his fightback I for one thought he will completely fail on his return but he made me eat crow with the oDI performances. Of course could be better with a higher SR but then none of the others have been able to do it too consistently. Go Dada!!!

[Ram]

Very well said, Sriram. I salute him too, for his self belief, his mental fortitude, his never-say-die attitude when his career seemed to be all but over. Those are the qualities that make a man, any man.

I was about to mention the same thing Dhondy. It takes a lot of courage, grit and charecter for anyone to come back like this. Ganguly has fought back with Dignity ! Great man !

[theguyinallblue]

i will comment after the test series ....

[Ram]

i will comment after the test series ....

TGIB, I wasnt specifically referring to his batting here. I was impressed with the way he has fought back into the team. In that sense , he deserves to be saluted !

[theguyinallblue]

this only shows..that he wasted three good years of his prime..by being complacent... he was always a good player..who its not that he acquired new skills... its just that ...he was taking his place for granted... Just look at zaheer... he seems to be fired up all the time..eager to perform... sometimes...even the sharpest of the knives gets rusty with no-use..

[CC1981]

this only shows..that he wasted three good years of his prime..by being complacent...

Complacent ? You think complacency is why his batting declined ? Not taking over a post-matchfixing scandal team & forging it into a tough unit didnt take a lot of time out of his schedule ? Sometimes i wonder if all the people claiming 'gangoo cant play short pitched ones to his body' have no long-term memory or if they are truely ignorant. Gangoo always was a 'God on the offside, lilliput on the onside' player. In his heydeys, he'd be the ONLY Indian batsman who gets bogged down when someone bowls to his legs as well as being the ONLY unstoppable Indian bat in the offside.

[Predator_05]

I'd rather play Gambhir in ODI's. In tests, he would be one of the first names on the team-sheet though. He was marvellous in South Africa. I had called for his selection before those test matches began, and predictably he came back in emphatic fashion. Now that he has been relived from the pressures of captaincy, he will score prolifically in Test cricket. Many people forget that Ganguly was averaging in the high 40's before his appointment as Indian captain back in '00

[Ram]

Gambhir is yet to prove that he can consistently deliver at the internationel level. ONLY if he does that , will it make sense for calls to replace either Saurav or Sachin with him in the opening slot.

[Lurker]

I am holding my horses on this one. Ganguly shines in the cricket team today because everyone else is falling. Yes it is tempting to suggest Ganguly has done great but his "greatness" has been average at the best. I mean it is not that he is piling centuries, leading India to victory and so on. At best he is coming up with 50s and leading India to win against minnows. No it is not a knock on him but I am not gonna say hats off or anything. At this time it is more a case of "Andhon mein Kaana Raaja".

[fineleg]

Come on you can't dismiss him like this- you have to admire his fightback I for one thought he will completely fail on his return but he made me eat crow with the oDI performances. Of course could be better with a higher SR but then none of the others have been able to do it too consistently. Go Dada!!!

Suraj, Are you back to posting? Hope ur doing good. Regarding Dada - I agree with what DD (dhruv) says above. http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showpost.php?p=88304&postcount=4 True - he has made a comeback and that is to be appreciated. But this is not all THE great comeback and one of "THE best comebacks in history of cricket" like what sriram says - and the reason it is not THE best is becos he has failed at the big stage when we needed him to fire (WC07). It is a decent comeback, but the adjectives used may not be suitable - we need to wait and see how he does in England and Australia in 2007 before we can call it a great comeback.

[flute202020]

Suraj, Are you back to posting? Hope ur doing good. Regarding Dada - I agree with what DD (dhruv) says above. http://www.indiancricketfans.com/showpost.php?p=88304&postcount=4 True - he has made a comeback and that is to be appreciated. But this is not all THE great comeback and one of "THE best comebacks in history of cricket" like what sriram says - and the reason it is not THE best is becos he has failed at the big stage when we needed him to fire (WC07). It is a decent comeback, but the adjectives used may not be suitable - we need to wait and see how he does in England and Australia in 2007 before we can call it a great comeback.

hi Suraj, hope you are doing good..drop us a line when you have time FL, thanks for referring to me this forum. just now, I am trying to get to know the forum and the members here.

[Dhondy]

It's a very relaxed place, Flute. Just post whatever you feel like. Somebody will reply. Welcome, BTW.