Sourav Ganguly made India a tough team – Nasser Hussain

Former England captain Nasser Hussain is known for brilliant analysis. Hussain had also led England with aplomb and took his team to new heights. The former England skipper also shared a great rivalry with Indian captain Sourav Ganguly. The Natwest trophy of 2002 is one of India’s biggest overseas ODI wins.

Hussain believes India carried a tag of a ‘nice team’ before Sourav Ganguly took the captaincy baton from Mohammad Azharuddin. The Chennai born Hussain feels Ganguly was instrumental in making them a tough team as he got the best out of his players.

In fact, Ganguly took over the captaincy reins at a difficult time when there were allegations of match fixing. However, the Prince of Kolkata made sure that he led from the front. Ganguly knew which players he wanted to back and gave them ample opportunities.

Players like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh glittered under the tutelage of Ganguly. Subsequently, India started to achieve success while playing in overseas conditions and they grew in confidence.

Ganguly led India in 49 Test matches in which the team won on 21 occasions and lost 13 matches. The southpaw batsman had a winning percentage of 42.85 in Test fold. On the other hand, Ganguly captained India in 146 ODI matches in which the side won 76 matches whereas they lost 65 and five matches ended in no result. Ganguly had a win percentage of 53.90 in ODI fold.

“Before Sourav, India was a nice team, great players, Azhar, Javagal Srinath, they had some fantastic players, but before Sourav, they were a nice team. Very sort of ‘good morning, how you doing’, you know a bit like you Harsha to be honest, very nice and pleasant. Ganguly made them a tough team. Waiting for the toss for Ganguly, it is half past 10, 10.31 in England, ‘where is Ganguly’? Steve Waugh, me, everyone,” Nasser Hussain told Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz in Conversation.

Sourav Ganguly is regarded as one of the best Indian captains. Ganguly was able to instil in the confidence in his players and the team was able to produce positive results under his leadership. In fact, Harsha Bhogle also rated Sourav Ganguly as his favourite Indian captain recently.

Ganguly was aggressive in his approach and he liked to take the bull by its horns. Ergo, he was instrumental in changing the mindset of his teammates and pushed them to the limits to achieve one common goal – which was to win at any cost.