Ganguly rightly talked about slots being up for grabs in the Indian team which would tend to mean that he believes some players in the present squad are not performing as well as they should be. Ofcourse he could only be talking of slots number 1,2 & maybe 6 in the test team. But Saurav, how about the No.5 slot? "No one can take his place for granted" he says, wish it would apply for EVERYBODY in the team. Based on his performances alone ,in test matches(since quite long), I believe the No.5 slot is up for grabs as well. But he's been a very inspiring & aggressive captian, just hoping he finally comes good with the willow as well.
Yes slots are up but it would be better if it were for Gangulys place in the side.
I dont think Ganguly has done anything as a caption for the side. All series that india have won was due to some personal performance of other players except Ganguly.
He couldnt play Pacers of SA, Australia and Pakistan on home pitches so forget about him performaning abroad on their pitches. And even Nasser Hussain exploited his inability to play OK kind of fast bowling with a second string of bowlers.
A man whose average in test cricket against Australia, South Africa and Pakistan combined is below 30 talks about slots up for grab. His batting average against Australia home & away is 29, against SA is 25 and against Pakistan is 34.
And he speaks after the West Indies Series last time that he was having a bad patch and now is scoring runs. Runs against whom, Dillon, Cuffy, Stanford & co and that too when West Indies have stopped making lively tracks and all those tracks in West Indies were not fast tracks. And WI won that series with these bowlers. And it was a pain to see Ganguly score those runs to prove that he can score abroad.
Ganguly is the combination of spirit, intelligence, aggression, smartness and good play - a rare combination for an extraordinary captain. He made us proud in the world assembly.
I hope that this statement applies to Ganguly himself too. It is not like "some are more equal than others". Seeing his performance, I think he needs to worry more than anybody else.
It was definetly nice to know that Ganguly is hinting at slots up for grabs.Is he also hinting that his place in batting order is up for grabs.In the Test matches,he is not playing consitently and if he does not pull up his socks now,he has to sacrifice his position and be content with role of non-playing captain,role which he is playing amicably.Also it won't be a wise idea to push Parthiv to One dayers than instead groom in the Test Arena as it was the case with Dravid.Now its the time to push likes of Tilak Naidu who has shades of Sachin in him as both Other Contenders have prooved that they are not ready for shorter version yet.
"Having carved a niche for himself both as a captain and a player, is Ganguly giving a thought to retirement?
Is that a question one should pose to a player and a captain ahead of a tough series ? Would it do any good to the player's confidence ? Poor press people, cant help pitying them.
