Happy Birthday Dada: Sourav Ganguly celebrates his 47th birthday

A Bengal tiger with a separate fan base, affectionately known as 'Dada', is regarded as the man who truly transformed the face of Indian Cricket by giving it raw emotions

India former captain Sourav Ganguly, one of the most accomplished cricketers of India, celebrates his 47th birthday today. A Bengal tiger with a separate fan base, affectionately known as 'Dada', is regarded as the man who truly transformed the face of Indian Cricket by giving it raw emotions and the will to die fighting. One of the greatest captains in Indian cricket history led Indian cricket out of its worst mess ever. A stylish left hand batsman and one of the best captains, ‘Dada’, stood by his men through thick and thin. His knowledge of the game has made him a good commentator and an unbiased thinker of the game. The Indian cricket team was rocked by fixing scandals in 1999 and faced a humiliating defeat in Australia. Thanks to the Bengal Cricket Boss leadership skills, Indian cricket team defeated Australia and with Sehwag, Zaheer and Yuvraj blooded, India played a World Cup final. Prince of Kolkata, Sourav Ganguly, is popularly known as the God of the offside. He is the first player to score three hundreds in ICC Champions Trophy and attained the highest individual score by an Indian in cricket World Cup. July 13, 2002 – the date when people across India and England witnessed one of the iconic events in the history of international cricket. Exactly 16 years ago, an ODI match was played between India and England at The Lord’s, London, which not only changed the face of Indian cricket but also defined Sourav Ganguly as one of the dynamic Indian captains. In a nail-biting affair, India thumped England by 2 wickets and thus, history was scripted.

July 13, 2002 - #TeamIndia won the NatWest series final #ThisDayThatYear @MohammadKaif @ImZaheer @YUVSTRONG12 @SGanguly99. That epic moment - Etched forever!pic.twitter.com/jKeFXEmCgk

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 13, 2018

Apart from this majestic win, Ganguly’s celebration – taking out his t-shirt and twirling it around at the Lord’s balcony - grabbed the limelight as well. Later it was learned that his act was an answer to Andrew Flintoff who took off his shirt a year back at Wankhede after winning the ODI series. The incredibly-gifted player has hit 22 centuries and 72 half-centuries in the limited-overs format. In test matches, Ganguly scored 7212 runs in 113 matches at an average of 42.17.