Three Indian Players Whose Careers Ended Prematurely Because Of Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly is one of the greatest ever cricketers to play for the Indian team. In his illustrious career, the 47-year-old shattered and created various records and went on to captain team India as well. As a skipper, he left a legacy behind, and the image of Ganguly celebrating by taking his shirt off, will always be remembered.

He is called ‘Dada’ with love in India, due to his exploits with the national team. Having scored a century on his debut on the iconic ground of Lord’s, Ganguly went on to score 18,575 runs in international cricket and became the third-highest scoring Indian player in history.

It remains a fact of immense pride for all Indians, that a legend such as him, played for team India. However, there are some players who also suffered because of the former Indian skipper’s success.

Here are three Indian players whose careers ended prematurely because of Sourav Ganguly:

Parthiv Patel

Team India went on a tour of England in the year 2002 and in the second Test match, India gave a young 17-year-old Parthiv Patel his debut cap . 16 years later, he is still going strong, but in his career, the left-handed wicket-keeper batsman has played just 25 Test matches and 38 ODIs for team India.

One reason for this is Sourav Ganguly, who was the skipper of the national team at that time. Both Patel and Ganguly were opening batsmen, and therefore, only one of them could play for the team. Thus, Ganguly thrived and Patel’s career stalled.

The 34-year-old also suffered due to the presence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the Indian team. Owing to the lack of chances both as an opener and as a wicketkeeper, Patel remained a fringe player for the Men in Blue.

Rohan Gavaskar

Former Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar’s son Rohan retired from cricket in 2012, having played just 11 ODI matches for team India. The 43-year-old played 117 first-class matches in his career, scoring 6938 runs, while he also captained the Bengal team for two seasons.

The left-handed batsman played his last first-class cricket match in the year 2009 and later turned into a commentator. Rohan’s career ended prematurely because he never had the backing of his captain Sourav Ganguly.

Despite being the son of a former Indian skipper and legendary player, Rohan failed to live up to the expectations, often struggling to make it into the national team because he never won the trust of Ganguly. He also backed other Indian players, and as a consequence, Rohan’s career suffered.

Aakash Chopra

Aakash Chopra made his Test debut for team India under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid, in 2003. At that time, the Men in Blue had a star-studded lineup brimming with talented players such as Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman etc, despite this, Chopra got the chance to open for India alongside Virender Sehwag.

But he struggled to nail down a place for himself in the Indian team, which was already full of talent. Sourav Ganguly replaced Chopra after a couple of average performances, and the emergence of Yuvraj Singh also reduced whatever hope Chopra had.

Later, the right-handed cricketer turned towards commentary as an occupation and has found immense success in that field.