BOMBAY, 13 August 2005 — India’s cricket selectors yesterday re-appointed Saurav Ganguly as captain, keeping faith in the country’s most successful skipper despite his poor form as a batsman.
The five-man committee headed by former Test wicketkeeper Kiran More, named Ganguly captain for the tour of Zimbabwe later this month that includes a tri-series with New Zealand and two Tests against the hosts.
“It was a unanimous decision by the selectors to bring back Ganguly,” Indian cricket board secretary Karunakaran Nair told reporters here.
Ganguly, 33, was preferred to his long-time deputy Rahul Dravid, India’s most consistent batsmen in recent times and the reigning International Cricket Council (ICC) player of the year.
Dravid, 32, led India in the recent tri-series in Sri Lanka as Ganguly served out his ICC-imposed ban for slow over-rates during the home series against Pakistan in April.
Dravid’s team defeated the second-string West Indies twice but lost three straight matches to the hosts, including Tuesday’s day-night final by 18 runs at the Premadasa stadium in Colombo.
Ganguly’s poor form with the bat, which has fetched the left-hander just 927 runs in his last 20 Test matches, had raised speculation that Dravid would get a longer term under new coach Greg Chappell.
Dravid scored 2,082 runs in the same period at an average of 74.35 to help lift India to No. 3 in the Test rankings behind Australia and England.
The Indians, however, slipped to seventh in the one-day rankings despite reaching the World Cup final in South Africa in 2003.
Ganguly, who took over as captain in 2000, has led India to a record 19 wins in 47 Tests. He lost 13 matches while 15 were drawn.
