5 nostalgic moments from England vs India Test matches

#4. 1996: The rise of “The Wall” and “The Prince of Kolkata”

Sourav Ganguly soaks in the acclaim at Lord's in 1996

The tour of England in 1996 is statistically forgettable for the Indian cricket team. They lost the Test series and the ODI series. Their captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, was sacked. Heck, they even lost matches to Derbyshire and Northamptonshire. However, the series did have a silver lining for India and provided one of the most nostalgic moments for Indian cricket in England.

A couple of young Indian cricketers made their Test debuts in the 2nd Test at Lord’s. The match ended in a tame draw but the match saw the rise of arguably India’s greatest Test captain and Test batsman in Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid respectively, especially in away Tests. Batting under pressure at the Mecca of cricket, Dravid played out the first tour-de-force of his glorious Indian career as he scored a debut 95 in six bloody-minded hours of batting.

Sourav Ganguly scored a princely hundred with 20 boundaries and showed us the first glimpse of his strokeplay which led to his “God of the offside” moniker. The defining image: The late great Richie Benaud exclaiming, “Wonderful!” as the Prince of Kolkata brings up his hundred with a cracking cover drive.