25 Years Unbroken.........

Recently, the New Zealand newbie, Davon Conway smashed a blazing double ton on his dream debut against the Three Lions at the Lords! But its significance does not end here but goes way back 25 years when two young yet formidable youngsters made their debut for India and went on to have a illustrious career along with the glory of leading their national side!

Yes! This is about two heroes of Indian cricket and gems to the cricketing history - Rahul "The Wall" Dravid and Saurav "Dada" Ganguly. When Virat and Rohit were just kids, two horsemen of Indian triumph over England and coincidently at the Lords! On that day at Lord’s, the two young Indian batsmen announced their arrival on the revered cricket ground with contrasting knocks. Dada scored a record debut century which was only broken after 25 years by Davon Conway while Rahul Dravid also did not not fail to show his masterclass.

The Test series hadn’t started on the right note for the Indian team as they lost the opening match in Birmingham. Captain Mohammed Azharuddin and the team management, then, decided to hand Test debuts to Ganguly and Dravid.

Experts were quick to question Ganguly’s selection in the playing XI as many felt that the Prince of Kolkata wasn’t fit for Tests. The man, who later went on to become one of India’s most successful captains, was then considered to be temperamental and that did not really help his cause with the critics.

Both Ganguly and Dravid though had to wait for their time to put on the pads and showcase their prowess as Azharuddin opted to bowl first as the wicket had a greenish tinge. His call was justified as Venkatesh Prasad claimed a five-wicket haul to bowl the hosts out for 344.

India, however, were instantly in trouble with opener Vikram Rathour back in the pavilion with the score reading 25 and that brought Ganguly to the crease. There were a few anxious moments for the debutant as the ball was doing quite a bit. But once he settled down, the man known as the king of the offside played quite a few delectable cover drives to stamp his authority.

He put up a 64-run stand with  revered Sachin Tendulkar for the third wicket but it was probably his 94-run partnership with Dravid for the sixth wicket that kept India in the game.

Dravid came into the bat in his first innings in Test cricket at number seven with the likes of Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja in the team and had to do the uphill task with the team reeling at 202/5 with just the tail left to bat. He was rock solid in his defence but hardly let go of an opportunity to score runs if the ball was pitched on the middle and leg stumps. It was perhaps because of the manner in which Ganguly batted or because we always end up associating Dravid with his strong defensive technique; not many today talk about the strokes he played that day.

It was befitting that Ganguly reached his century on debut with another cover drive off Dominic Cork and went on to make a solid 131, highest score by a debutant at Lord’s, before being dismissed by Allan Mullally. He faced a total of 301 balls in that innings and hit 20 boundaries.

Sitting here at my Behala residence I can still recapture my six-hour-long innings, with its three breaks, almost minute to minute. Every run gave me so much pleasure. Ask me where the 50th run came from while I was in a partnership with my captain. Where did I play my first off drive? I remember it all. - Saurav Ganguly in 'A Century is Not Enough' 

Dravid, however, continued to frustrate the hosts and added valuable runs with his Karnataka teammates Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath to take India beyond the 400-run mark. Unfortunately, he edged a Chris Lewis delivery to wicketkeeper Jack Russell just five runs short of what would have be a fine ton and a chance to become only the fourth Indian debutant to score a century at Lord’s.

These knocks left a solid stamp not only on minds of the Indian fans but cricket worldwide also. Later on, Jammy went on to coach the U-19 side as well as the Indian side where as the Prince of Kolkata became the president of the BCCI.

                                                                                                                                - Shounak Kulkarni