Sourav Ganguly Was The One Who Turned It Around - Brad Hogg On India-Australia Rivalry

The former Australian spinner Brad Hogg credited Sourav Ganguly for increasing the intensity of the matches between India and Australia and hailed him for being at the opposition’s face. The Indian teams in the past did produce a lot of big performances but they never looked like upsetting the big teams consistently until Ganguly’s era.

The left-hander was made the captain of the Indian team at a very early age and his captaincy did change the fortunes of the Indian future. He led India to the ICC World Cup finals in 2003 and had registered a lot of overseas wins in England, Australia where tourists have struggled. His attitude was the major positive and it looked like a completely different India team who were up for a challenge always under him.

Brad Hogg Recalls The Incident When Ganguly Shook Australia

Australia has dominated a lot of teams around the world, but Ganguly never was overwhelmed by it and Brad Hogg recalled the incident that marked the era of Ganguly. Steve Waugh was the captain of the Australian side and he was made to wait by Ganguly to pick his blazer that he had forgotten. Hogg was certain about Ganguly’s knowledge on what would make Australia feel in the wrong way and he did express his liking for it.

“The one thing that Ganguly did was really test Australia. If you remember that Test match where he made Steve Waugh wait – I think he did not come with his blazer for the toss – he just knew what would rub Australia up the wrong way in that sense,”  Brad Hogg stated in his YouTube Channel.

Brad Hogg Hails Ganguly For Creating The Competitive Atmosphere

Brad Hogg heaped praises on Ganguly for keeping the standards really high as a captain and he mentioned Ganguly accepting the challenges and being willing to put up a fight. He added that Ganguly changed the whole atmosphere in India- Australia matches like the Ashes games and stated that it is one of the reasons for the brand of cricket, India have been playing at the present.

“I think during that particular time, when we went over there, before that, India was intimidated by us, and it wasn’t until Ganguly came in and started to stand up and fight back and give us the verbal, sort of upset us and get under our skin that things really turned around.”

“The contests between India and Australia started to be like England and Australia. There was a lot of noise, passion, and Ganguly was the one who turned it around and created that atmosphere and created that strength and a different brand of cricket that India are playing now” Brad Hogg added.

India won the last two test series in Australia under Virat Kohli and the stones for success were placed from Ganguly’s era.