4 Indian stalwarts who owe their careers to Sourav Ganguly

#3 Yuvraj Singh

A young Yuvraj was unleashed by Ganguly

India's overseas losing paradigm was broken only in 2002, fittingly under Ganguly's captaincy, in the NatWest tri-series against England and Sri Lanka, and the architects of the victory were once again, two youngsters Ganguly was instrumental in getting into the team - Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh.

Apparently, he first heard about Yuvraj from former India cricketer Ashok Malhotra. Ashok, who'd seen serious potential in Yuvraj, promptly informed Ganguly of this very young southpaw making giant strides in domestic cricket. Sooner than he'd finished the conversation, Ganguly made himself available to watch Yuvraj bat in a Ranji Trophy match at Delhi.

Now he saw a solution to India's middle order woes in international cricket. Here was a batsman who was unafraid of playing shots, had a scintillating back lift, and could send the ball a long way into the stands.

Yuvraj was hardly a finished product by then, but Ganguly fast-tracked him into the U-19 side, and subsequently into the India A side. Yuvraj made his debut in 2000 and started his career with a sensational inning of 84, going on to record close to 9000 runs in ODIs.