Ganguly under pressure

Kunal Pradhan

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly will be under pressure to score runs in a three-day first class game against Australia starting on Tuesday, after being slammed for India's crushing 10-wicket first Test defeat last week.

Sources close to national selectors said Ganguly had asked to be drafted into the Board President's team which he will lead against Australia in the three-day warm-up match to be played at New Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla stadium.

The media tore into Ganguly's captaincy and his failure to score runs after then Indian team lost the first Test to Australia last week with more than two days to spare.

Ganguly scored only eight and one in the Test as the Indian batting collapsed in both innings.

Ganguly acknowledged he was under pressure and said he would try to find ways to stop Australia's record 16-Test winning run. The second of three Tests starts in Calcutta on March 11.

"I did not have a good match at all. I think I need to get some runs," Ganguly said after the first Test.

"We have to find a way to counter Australia before the second Test," he added.

Australia have not won a Test series in India since Bill Lawry led his team to a 3-1 series win in 1969.

Ganguly's ability to play good quality pace bowling has often been questioned by experts. He scored only 177 runs at an average of 29.50 from three Tests in Australia in the 1999/2000 series.

But Ganguly has been known to bounce back in the past. He was written off as a failure after a one-day tournament in Australia, in 1991/92, where he scored three runs in the lone innings he played. But he scored a Test century on his debut at Lord's and then another in his second game at Trent Bridge to cement his pace in the team during the England tour of 1996.

Mail Cricket Editor