Sourav Ganguly Was Not Suitable For T20s: John Buchanan

Sourav Ganguly’s struggle in IPL was quite visible. Ganguly made the nation proud with his contribution in the Tests and ODIs. Known as the God of offside, Ganguly played an aggressive brand of cricket and imbibed the same in the national team. But former KKR coach John Buchanan believes his style of play did not suit the T20s.

Buchanan not only worked closely with Ganguly during his time as KKR coach but also took some important decisions for the side. He however felt that as a captain in the shortest format one needs to take quick decisions and Ganguly’s game was not suited for the format.

“My thinking at the time was, as a captain, you needed to be able to make quick decisions and your game needed to be suited to the shorter format, and that’s why I had those conversations with Sourav. I just couldn’t believe he was suited to the format of the game and certainly not in a formal captaincy role,” John Buchanan told Sportstar.

Ganguly played as an icon player for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) between 2008 to 2010. He later represented the Pune Warriors India between 2011 to 2012. The former KKR and India captain had earlier said that he liked playing the shortest format of the game and would have liked to play a bit longer.

Ganguly played 59 matches in the IPL. Though he was not consistent, he brought in a lot of experience to the IPL franchises. The southpaw scored 1349 runs in the tournament at an average of 25 with seven half-centuries to his name.