Is Ganguly good enough to play test cricket ?

[EnglishRose]

Seriously, when was the last time Ganguly made a test match hundred or came close to it ?

Add to that his crazy field placings in the Calcutta test (men on the boundary with the opposition on the ropes ) ????

If Anil Kumble was captain, I daresay he'd do any worse than Saurav....he'd probably be a lot better and you could bring someone into the middle order who could actually score runs in a test match !!

 

[Eclipse]

no not really.

 

[LongHopCassidy]

Seriously, when was the last time Ganguly made a test match hundred or came close to it ?

Add to that his crazy field placings in the Calcutta test (men on the boundary with the opposition on the ropes ) ????

If Anil Kumble was captain, I daresay he'd do any worse than Saurav....he'd probably be a lot better and you could bring someone into the middle order who could actually score runs in a test match !!

He's a smart guy.

He can play spin.

He'll do for my side.

 

[chekmeout]

I agree with you EnglishRose
except Dravid as captain and not Kumble

 

[C_C]

Good enough to play isnt necessarily good enough period, for IF you play or not is totally subject to whether you are amongst the top 11 choices from the available talent-pool.
If your talent pool is zimbabwe, a player like Bashar would be under no pressure...
If your talent pool is like the WI of the 70s/80s or or OZ of now, players like Gillespie or Jayawardene would struggle to get a look.

However,simply good enough to play test cricket, irrelevant to who's path he is blocking, then hell yes!

Overall in test cricket, Ganguly is a better batsman than MANY who are playing/have played recently- Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Neil McKenzie,Stephen Fleming,Craig McMillan, Younis Khan, etc etc.

 

[EnglishRose]

Good enough to play isnt necessarily good enough period, for IF you play or not is totally subject to whether you are amongst the top 11 choices from the available talent-pool.
If your talent pool is zimbabwe, a player like Bashar would be under no pressure...
If your talent pool is like the WI of the 70s/80s or or OZ of now, players like Gillespie or Jayawardene would struggle to get a look.

However,simply good enough to play test cricket, irrelevant to who's path he is blocking, then hell yes!

Overall in test cricket, Ganguly is a better batsman than MANY who are playing/have played recently- Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain, Neil McKenzie,Stephen Fleming,Craig McMillan, Younis Khan, etc etc.

Butcher and Hussain are/were much better players than that clown Ganguly.
You're 'aving a laugh surely.

 

[C_C]

Neither Butcher, Nor Hussain are a match for Ganguly at his peak nor are they better overall....
Despite his slumps, Gangs averages 40+ in test cricket....Hussain and Butcher shyte their pants hearing 40 average.
One averages 37+chance, the other averages 34+change....Gangs is a good 4pts/7pts clear of them both.

 

[Retox]

Neither Butcher, Nor Hussain are a match for Ganguly at his peak nor are they better overall....
Despite his slumps, Gangs averages 40+ in test cricket....Hussain and Butcher shyte their pants hearing 40 average.
One averages 37+chance, the other averages 34+change....Gangs is a good 4pts/7pts clear of them both.

Fleming at his best is better then Gangs.

 

[Dizzy #4]

no

 

[C_C]

An Emphatic NO.

Lets see- Flemmo's best patch is 2003 and 2004, where he scored 1368 runs @ 54.72 from 28 innings and had 4 centuries and 3 fifties.

Ganguly's best patch is 96-97 when he scored 1352 runs from 26 innings @ 54.08 and had 5 centuries and 4 fifties.

Fleming has 6 years outta 12 years averaging over 40 for the year, Ganguly has 6 outta 10 years averaging over 40 for the year....Flemmo has 2 years over 50+ ave while Ganguly has 4.

 

[biased indian]

Butcher and Hussain are/were much better players than that clown Ganguly.
You're 'aving a laugh surely.

a big no on that

 

[shaka]

Fleming has been disintegrated mentally against this Australian team, but he will perform against Sri Lanka and return to his usual form. He IMO is much better than Ganguly is

 

[luckyeddie]

An Emphatic NO.

Lets see- Flemmo's best patch is 2003 and 2004, where he scored 1368 runs @ 54.72 from 28 innings and had 4 centuries and 3 fifties.

Ganguly's best patch is 96-97 when he scored 1352 runs from 26 innings @ 54.08 and had 5 centuries and 4 fifties.

Fleming has 6 years outta 12 years averaging over 40 for the year, Ganguly has 6 outta 10 years averaging over 40 for the year....Flemmo has 2 years over 50+ ave while Ganguly has 4.

Nothing in it then. None of those figures appear to be significantly disproportionate.

 

[biased indian]

ya since this was said

Fleming at his best is better then Gangs

 

[SJS]

Ganguly's career average or what he did five years ago is not germane to the issue. What has he done in recent times, if you take away the Bangladesh matches, in test matches ?

Not much, I am afraid.

If he wasnt captain, he would have been dropped and that is a fact.

 

[SJS]

In the last six tests (two each against australia, Safrica and Pakistan), in eight innings he has totalled 202 runs at 25 each with one fifty. Not a great record by any stretch of imagination but its not a long enough run to be termed a disaster either.

Considering that in the nine innings prior to that (1 against Pakistan away, 6 against Australia away and 2 against NZL at home) he scored 486 runs at 54 runs each with 2 hundreds and two fifties.

I think its a bit early for knives to be out though he is clearly many folks favourite guy to knife !!

 

[BoyBrumby]

Ganguly's career average or what he did five years ago is not germane to the issue. What has he done in recent times, if you take away the Bangladesh matches, in test matches ?

Not much, I am afraid.

If he wasnt captain, he would have been dropped and that is a fact.

Do you think his captaincy alone warrants his retention?

I haven't been able to see the current series over here, but the reports suggest he's made some questionable decisions.

I've no real axe to grind either way, just curious.

 

[SJS]

Do you think his captaincy alone warrants his retention?

I haven't been able to see the current series over here, but the reports suggest he's made some questionable decisions.

I've no real axe to grind either way, just curious.

NO. I dont. I dont think he is a great on-the-field captain.

But he is one of India's most successful captains ever so its something which will always be used in his favour.

I would have dropped him from captaincy first

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Ganguly "the batsman" is good enough to play Test cricket. ie Ganguly pre-captaincy. He used to be a class batsman in both Tests and ODIs, but the captaincy has ruined him IMO. His on-field persona has completely changed and his batting has gone downhill with it. It really is sad.

I think back to the 1999 World Cup when Ganguly was one of my favourite players. Now I have no respect for him as a player. He's fallen that far. Decent captain, yes. Batting captain? No.

 

[social]

Ganguly can be an excellent batsman - his overall record is evidence of that

Ganguly can be an excellent captain - he is one of the few Indians with the strength of personality to bring this talented side together (e.g. 2 of last 3 test series vs Aus)

However, he is, at times, incredibly erratic and selfish (e.g. vs NZ in NZ, last Aus series).

I personally cannot stand his arrogant attitude but India are unlikely to drop him whilst still being at least competitive in the important series.

BTW, from what Ive seen, Dravid is a poor captain and Tendulkar is the only one with a cricket brain.