Ramesh-Ganguly: The First Left-handed Indian opening pair (30 March 1999)
When S Ramesh walked out with Saurav Ganguly to open the Indian innings against Sri Lanka at Pune on Tuesday, it provided the first instance of a left-handed opening pair for India in Limited Overs International cricket
30-Mar-1999
30 March 1999
Ramesh-Ganguly: The First Left-handed Indian opening pair
Atul Kahate
When S Ramesh walked out with Saurav Ganguly to open the Indian
innings against Sri Lanka at Pune on Tuesday, it provided the first
instance of a left-handed opening pair for India in Limited Overs
International cricket. Never before have two left-handed batsmen
opened an innings for India. In fact, Ramesh is only the fourth
left-handed batsman to open for India, the others being WV Raman,
Vinod Kambli and of course, Ramesh's partner Ganguly.
The closest India came to opening with two left handers was during the
Wills Trophy triangular tournament, also involving Pakistan and Sri
Lanka at Sharjah in October 1991. WV Raman opened the batting with
Navjot Sidhu and was dismissed for a second ball duck against the West
Indies: in the next match against Pakistan, India opened with a brand
new pair - Vinod Kambli giving company to Ravi Shastri.
Apart from this, right handers have dominated the opening slot for
India throughout their LOI history; although Pakistan among many
others have had a lot of success with Saeed Anwar and Aamir Sohail.
Contributed by: Atul Kahate (AKahate@yahoo.com)
Source :: Atul Kahate