ON THIS DAY
Follow UsOver the years, cricket has witnessed numerous debut innings and maiden centuries that left a mark on pundits and opponents. But, very few of them went on to become as significant as Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid’s match-saving partnership against England at the Lord’s on June 22, 1996.
The 94-run stand between the two debutants had not only drawn a seemingly lost Test match for India but also forged characters that would dominate world cricket for years to come. What made Ganguly and Dravid’s debuts special were the circumstances under which they were called to duty.
The Indian team was undergoing a tumultuous transition from the old guard to the new ones. And instead of easing their lesser experienced players into the setup, they were pushed into the volcano owing to dressing-room conflicts and poor form.
India had lost the first Test by eight wickets in Birmingham. The opening pair of Vikram Rathour and Ajay Jadeja had failed terribly, with the experienced Sanjay Manjrekar experiencing a cold streak. Barring Sachin Tendulkar, no Indian batter could reach the three-figure mark at Edgbaston.
With the three-match series at stake, veteran Navjot Sidhu decided to leave the Indian squad following his differences with new captain Mohammad Azharuddin. With the skipper himself not getting runs and the experienced heads not helping much either, Ganguly was asked to bat at no. 3 in the second Test.
Ganguly being an all-rounder, had paved the way for Rahul Dravid to replace left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi. Coming at 7, Dravid added depth to India’s batting line-up, with Ganguly providing an extra pace bowling option. The changes did the trick as Ganguly dismissed English skipper Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussain and Graeme Hick early in the first innings.
However, as the ball got old, the English batters gained their footing. A stupendous partnership between Jack Russell and Graham Thorpe, followed by the former’s century, saw England post 344 runs in the first innings. India had decided to send wicket-keeper Nayan Mongia to open instead of Jadeja, but it did not help. A 23-year-old Ganguly had to come to the crease with Rathour getting out after scoring just 15 runs. By the end of Day 2, India had Ganguly and Tendulkar at the crease.
On the third day, June 22, the crowd was excited to see Tendulkar at the crease. After his century at Edgbaston, Indians had high expectations from him. However, the visitors were quickly reduced to 202-5, with yet another debutant Rahul Dravid handed an uphill task.
With two young, unknown faces standing against England’s four-pronged bowling attack of Chris Lewis, Dominic Cork, Alan Mullally and Peter Martin in challenging conditions, the fate looked sealed for India. However, the English pacers would soon realise that their pace wasn’t enough to break their resolve.
Ganguly had no chinks in his armour. He would smash the ball outside off towards the covers, drive the overpitched deliveries and pull the short balls with utmost confidence. Even the straight drives and cut shots remained technically correct as the southpaw hit 20 boundaries in his historic innings of 131 runs. He was only the third debutant to score a century at Lord’s.
Dravid, on the other end, was impeccable with his doggedness. Opposed to Ganguly’s flair, Dravid showed unimaginable patience for 363 minutes. His 95-run knock had only six boundaries, but they robbed English bowlers of one important thing - hope.
Ganguly and Dravid would continue batting till Day 4 to give India an 85-run lead after ending the first innings with 429 runs.
Recalling the match years later, Ganguly had said, “I said to everyone I remember the press conference after the Lord's Test. I came to the press conference, and the media asked me, 'How does it feel proving everyone wrong?'. I said 'the only it (hundred on debut) proved I was good enough at this level.”
Both Ganguly and Dravid would go on to captain India and end their Test careers with over 20,000 runs and 52 centuries between them.
