Ganguly back as captain

Sourav Ganguly returns as captain, but just for one tour © Getty Images

Sourav Ganguly has been reinstated as India's captain for the tour of Zimbabwe, which includes two Tests against the hosts, and a tri-series also involving New Zealand. While the selection of Ganguly had been perceived as little more than a formality, the shortness of tenure granted to him means that his form with the bat and the performance of the team under him will be under scrutiny.

The five-man selection panel of the BCCI chose Ganguly after a meeting in Mumbai that lasted nearly two hours. Despite the lengthy duration of the meeting, the selectors insisted that there was no second option for the panel. "It was an unanimous decision by the selectors to bring back Ganguly," SK Nair, the secretary of the Indian board said, while refusing to divulge any details. With 47 Test matches at the helm, Ganguly among three captains to have captained India the maximum number of times, with Sunil Gavaskar and Mohammad Azharuddin being the other two.

Ganguly takes over from Rahul Dravid, who led the team in the recent tri-nation tournament in Sri Lanka while Ganguly served out a ban for slow over-rates in the one-day series against Pakistan. Ganguly joined the squad halfway through the tournament and scored a painstaking half century in his comeback match.

"I hope it becomes a good partnership among Dravid, Greg and I so that we can get a winning combination," Ganguly said after getting his job back. "We hope to do well in Zimbabwe. We need to improve our performance in the ODIs. We have not done well in the shorter version of the game in the past one year."

Dravid, India's most consistent batsman in recent times, won both games against a weakened West Indies side, but lost all three matches to hosts Sri Lanka, including an 18-run loss in the final in Colombo on Tuesday night. However, Ganguly's poor run of form with the bat has raised speculation about his future with the team. Ganguly has scored a mere 927 runs in his last 20 Test matches at an average of 33. Surprisingly enough, Ganguly's recent record at home is even more dismal; he averages under 28, with two centuries against Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

As captain, Ganguly has had a fairly ordinary run as well. While India have won eight matches out of the last 20 under his captaincy, that number drops to six out of 20 in overseas matches. And even that total doesn't show up too well for Ganguly, considering that his last three away victories include two in Bangladesh, and one in Pakistan. At 33, age is also against him, as the selectors would look forward to the World Cup in 2007.