Former skipper and BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has named five Indian cricketers from the current lot he would have wanted in his Test team. In 2000, the match-fixing scandal engulfed the Indian camp, and Ganguly was then made the captain of the side. As soon as the left-handed batsman became the skipper, he started grooming new talent. Ganguly, who is celebrating his 48th birthday today, was recently involved in a chat session with Indian opening batsman Mayank Agarwal. It was then the former skipper was asked about the five players he would have wanted in his Test squad.

“It’s a very tough question, Mayank, because I feel every generation the players are different, players face challenges differently in different generations, pitches, quality of opposition,” Ganguly told Mayank in a video on BCCI website.

“From your current team, I would have loved to have Virat Kohli in the side, Rohit Sharma in the side. I will go for (Jasprit) Bumrah because I had Zaheer (Khan) at the other end. I would also go for Mohammed Shami after Javagal Srinath retired because I think Mohammed Shami is a fantastic bowler,” he added.

“So I’ve got Rohit, I’ve got Virat, I’ve got Bumrah, I’ve got Shami, so I’ve got four. I had Harbhajan (Singh) and Anil Kumble in my side, so (R) Ashwin would be my third spinner. I would be very tempted to have Ravindra Jadeja also,” Ganguly further stated.

Promoted

The left-handed batsman had made his Test debut against England in the summer of 1996. He immediately made headlines as he went on to score a century in his maiden Test at Lord’s.

The 48-year-old Ganguly had guided India to the finals of the 2003 World Cup and the side just fell short in the summit clash against Australia.