Is it the end of Sourav Ganguly’s Test career?

Faisalabad, Jan 21 : India Saturday dropped Sourav Ganguly, already out of the one-day side, from the squad for the second Test against Pakistan that began here Saturday, leading many to wonder if it was the end of the deposed captain’s Test career.

In the first Test in Lahore, Ganguly was picked for the final eleven but never got the opportunity to bat.

Captain Rahul Dravid (unbeaten 128) batted as a makeshift opener and along with vice-captain Virender Sehwag (254) put on 410 for the first wicket as rains, poor visibility and a flat pitch ensured that a single innings of the two teams was not completed. The match ended in a drab draw.

The combination of events also meant that Ganguly did not get the chance to show that he could extend his Ranji Trophy form to Test cricket, after he was dropped for India’s previous Test against Sri Lanka in Ahmedabad.

Following widely publicised protests, particularly in his hometown Kolkata, Ganguly was included in the squad for the Pakistan tour. Many experts believed that Kiran More’s selection committee was under pressure to pick him following Ganguly’s unusual meeting with Indian cricket board president Sharad Pawar.

Rumour mills worked overtime in India as instead of the usual 15-member squad, the selection panel picked 16 players for Pakistan, with many experts feeling the squad was inflated to accommodate him.

Ganguly’s form has not helped his cause. Despite his century against a weak Zimbabwe side in the first Test in Bulawayo in September last year, he has failed to convince connoisseurs of the game. After that knock, his sequence of scores in Tests cricket has been: Did not bat (DNB), 16, DNB, 5, 40, 39 and DNB.

Ganguly’s poor fitness and fielding abilities, too, have gone against him. Ironically, the 33-year-old left-handed batsman’s one-handed catch of Naved-ul-Hasan Rana in the Lahore Test won him the best catch of the match award.

The team management’s decision to drop Ganguly, who had a longing look at the Iqbal Stadium pitch here Friday even as Dravid answered questions about the team composition, is more embarrassing as his wife Dona and daughter Sana have joined him here for the match.

Ganguly, however, remains India’s most successful Test captain with 21 wins in 49 Tests in which he has led the team - seven more wins than the second-best skipper Mohammed Azharuddin.

The elegant left-hander has tallied 5,150 runs at an average of 40.87 with 12 centuries in 87 Tests and 10,123 runs at an average of 40.65 with 22 hundreds in 279 one-day internationals.

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