India vs South Africa: When Sourav Ganguly made a comeback to India Test side after Greg Chappell fiasco | Cricket News

The story of the rift between captain Sourav Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell is a tale as old as time in the Indian cricketing lore. Chappell and Ganguly had a massive fallout which led to the latter losing his captaincy to Rahul Dravid and eventually be dropped altogether from the Indian team.
But Ganguly would make a fairytale comeback to side in the 2006 tour to South Africa which stands out as one of the most iconic moments in Indian cricketing lore. As the present Indian team are getting ready to pack their bags and head to South Africa for the upcoming tour, beginning on December 10, here’s a look back on Ganguly’s famous comeback tour in Protea land.
Following India’s poor run of form in tournaments prior, Ganguly was brought back into the fold for the tour of South Africa in 2006. He made his mark in the very first match that he came back in as he scored an astounding 83 against the rest of South Africa which led to a victory for India.

In the tour proper, all eyes were on the veteran batter as he took guard in the 1st Test at Johannesburg against a bowling lineup consing of names such as Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn. He would end up as the top scorer with an unbeaten 51 which were crucial in handing India the victory in the Test.
The visitors would ultimately lose the series 2-1 but Ganguly was the highest Indian scorer of the Test series which led to him being called back in the ODI team when India faced West Indies and Sri Lanka.
In an illustrious career, Ganguly had made a memorable Test debut after scoring a century at Lord’s in 1996 and regered 11 wins from 28 away Tests, which was a record any Indian captain. He scored 7213 runs in 113 Tests and 11,363 runs in ODIs, after playing 311 matches.
He took over as captain from Mohammad Azharuddin in early 2000 and injected a much needed aggression in the team, which was missing earlier. He re-built the side with some fresh faces, including Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, Ashish Nehra and Harbhajan Singh, setting up a platform for the team to take charge.