Sourav Ganguly Biography: Early Life, Cricket Journey, Awards and Recognition
Table of Contents
Sourav Ganguly: Early Life, Family Background
Sourav Ganguly Biography: Sourav Ganguly is a former Indian cricket team captain, and the second highest run-getter from India in the ODIs. He was known as the ‘God of off side’ due to his exemplary skill of playing shots on the off side.
Sourav Ganguly, popularly known as Dada is one of the finest batsmen to have played for India. Sourav Ganguly was born on July 8, 1972, in Calcutta now Kolkata. His father name Chandidas and mother Nirupa Ganguly second child after Snehashish Ganguly.
- Full Name: Sourav Ganguly
- Nickname: Bengal Tiger, Maharaja, Dada, The God of the Off Side, The Warrior Prince
- Date of Birth: 8-Jul-72
- Hometown: Behala, Kolkata, West Bengal
- Height: Five feet eleven inches
- Spouse: Dona Ganguly
- Daughter: Sana Ganguly (born November 2001)
- Zodiac sign: Cancer
- Nationality: Indian
- Hometown: Kolkata, West Bengal, India
- School: St. Xavier’s Collegiate School. Kolkata, West Bengal
- Profession: Former Indian Cricketer
- Batting Style: Left-handed
- Bowling Style: Right-arm medium fast
- Teams Played for: India, Bengal, Lancashire, Glamorgan, Northamptonshire, Kolkata Knight Riders, Pune Warriors India
- Favourite Cricketer: David Gower
- Favourite Food: Alu Posto, Chingri Macher Malaikari, Biriyani
Sourav Ganguly Stats
Sourav Ganguly made his international debut for India against England in 1996. Sourav Ganguly holds a special place in Indian cricket history. For a specific time period in his playing days he was at once the most hated and most loved player in the team.
Sourav Ganguly has played 311 ODIs matches and scored 11221 runs which makes him the 2nd highest run-getter in ODIs for India. It includes 22 centuries and 72 fifties. He took exactly 100 ODI wickets.
Sourav Ganguly has played 113 Test matches for India and amassed 7212 runs including 16 hundred and 35 fifties. He also has 32 Test wickets to his name as a right arm medium pace bowler.
Sourav Ganguly Batting Career Summary
| – | Test | ODI | IPL |
| Matches | 113 | 311 | 59 |
| innings | 188 | 300 | 56 |
| Not-Out | 17 | 23 | 3 |
| Runs | 7212 | 11363 | 1349 |
| Highest Score | 239 | 183 | 91 |
| Average | 42.18 | 40.73 | 25.45 |
| Balls faced | 14070 | 15416 | 1263 |
| Strike Rate | 51.26 | 73.71 | 106.81 |
| 100 | 16 | 22 | 0 |
| 200 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | 35 | 72 | 7 |
| 4s | 900 | 1122 | 137 |
| 6s | 57 | 190 | 42 |
| Catches | 71 | 100 | 22 |
Sourav Ganguly Bowling Career Summary
| – | Test | ODI | IPL |
| M | 113 | 311 | 59 |
| Inn | 99 | 171 | 20 |
| B | 3117 | 4561 | 276 |
| Runs | 1681 | 3849 | 363 |
| Wkts | 32 | 100 | 10 |
| Econ | 3.24 | 5.06 | 7.89 |
| Avg | 52.53 | 38.49 | 36.3 |
| SR | 97.41 | 45.61 | 27.6 |
| 5W | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 10W | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Sourav Ganguly: Awards and Recognition
- He was also awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India, in 2004.
- The Government of West Bengal honoured Ganguly with the Banga Bibhushan Award on 20 May 2013.
- He featured in the 1999 World Cup and struck 183 against Sri Lanka at Taunton which remained his highest score in ODI cricket.
- His score of 183 is the highest score by an Indian batsman in a World Cup match.
- Sourav Ganguli is one of the five cricketers in the world to take 10000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODIs.
- He is one of the most successful Test captains of India, who had shown the team success in 21 matches out of 49 under his captaincy.
- There is a housing complex in Kolkata, that has been named after Sourav. It is called the ‘Sourav Housing Complex’.
- Ganguly also faced criticism in the media for the poor performance of Durham in county cricket and the removal of the shirt in the final of the NatWest Trophy in 2002.
- A 1.5 km road in Rajarhat in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is named after him.
- In the year 2000, match fixing scandal by other players of the team and the then Indian captain Sachin Tendulkar resigned due to his poor health and Ganguly was made the captain of Indian cricket team.
- He backed many young players and allowed them freedom to play their game their way. Yuvraj, Harbhajan, Sehwag, Zaheer and Gambhir are among those players who benefitted from his captaincy.
- No one could beat Saurav Ganguly in off-side batting. Rahul Dravid once went on record to say that he is God of off-side batting.
