'One of The Few Who Could Speak English Well': Former India Cricketer Recalls Sourav Ganguly Asked Him to Have a Go at Steve Waugh

On the day that the first-ever official international Test match was played between Australia and England at Melbourne back in 1877, India too scripted history, 22 years ago on March 15.

Widely regarded as one the greatest Test victories, India defeated Australia at the now-iconic Kolkata’s Eden Gardens in 2001. Following the magic of day four, with the legendary partnership between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid, the last day of the Test saw skipper Sourav Ganguly’s declaration and India going on to bundle out Australia for the win.

Former India cricketer Hemang Badani took to social media to recall an interesting story about the Test match in Kolkata.

“On day five our keeper Mongia got injured and yours truly was on as a substitute fielder and Sourav knowing that I was one of the few who could speak English well asked me to make it tough for the Aussies,” Badani posted on Twitter.

“I hadn’t even made my test debut then and imagine I was going hard at their Skip who had played over a 100 test games and I was lucky enough to be a part of his dismissal. Haven’t been a part of any better cricket match than this. Fabulous cricket and great memories for me,” he added.

Earlier, Badani had shared the story of how the Indian cricket team had packed their suitcases before coming onto the ground on Day 4, ready to leave for the third Test in Chennai.

“Not many know that at the end of day 3 we had packed our suitcases, they were to be taken straight to the airport and the team were to go straight to the airport from the ground. And then these two batted like magicians without losing a wicket the entire day,” Badani had written on Twitter.

“When we got back to the hotel, we didn’t have our suitcases and were stuck with our match gear and tracks until about 9 pm or so. Lot of us ate dinner at the hotel restaurant in our whites,” he had added.

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