Lord's and the debuts

Despite the 1996 series loss in England 0-1, Indians had lot of positives going into the next season. Golden Debuts of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid at Lord’s were signs of things to come.

For Ganguly the series was a sort of comeback, after being dropped post his lone ODI appearance in Brisbane in 1992, while it was Dravid’s first bite on International cricket.

Ganguly made the most of it and scored a century-166, while Dravid fell five short of a debut century. It would have been the first instance of two debutants from a same team scoring centuries, if Dravid would have managed five more.

The duo carried on the prime form in the third Test at Trent Bridge in Nottingham, where Ganguly scored another century (136) and Dravid struck a fine 84. Dada(Saurav Ganguly) went on to lift the Man of the Match award.

Ganguly impressed with his stroke play and was crafty on the off side. He could dissect the field at will with excusive timing. A young Dravid later called the stylish left hander "next to god on the off side."

Before moving to Lord's for the second Test, India played a three-day practice game against Derbyshire, which the visitors lost by a massive 10 wickets. But Ganguly scored a gutsy 64 that gave him a lot of confidence.

Recalling the practice match, Ganguly said: "The ball was swinging and the weather was chilly. I decided to hang on. I told myself that since I have played county cricket, I can score runs. The innings gave me immense confidence and made me believe that I belong to that place."

Injuries to Sanjay Manjerekar and Sunil Joshi opened the room for two debutants at Lord's and rest is history.

"We were staying in a hotel just opposite Lord's. We walked down to the ground and Azhar told me that I was in. It was a great moment in my life. We made a poor start and I walked in at No.3. (Alan) Mullally and (Dominic) Cork were bowling brilliantly and it took some time for me to settle down," said Ganguly.

The former Indian captain says it was a great 94-run partnership with Dravid.

"We both were young trying to cement our place in the team and we backed each other. When I was in 90s I could see that Rahul wanted me to score a century more than I did. It was unfortunate that he could not get his century."

Ganguly said it was his bowling that gave him the confidence to bat well at Lord's.

"I was bowling well. In the first innings I picked up two wickets and my first Test victim was Nasser Hussain, for whom it was his comeback series. Nasser took me lightly and ended up playing a loose shot to Vikram Rathore. The two wickets gave me immense confidence," said Ganguly.

Ganguly and Dravid laid the foundation for India’s fight back in the series. Things only improved from there on. In the subsequent tours to England, they stamped their authority. Ganguly’s infamous shirt swaying incident on the Lord’s balcony and Indian win in 2007 under Rahul Dravid are live instances of the same.

2011 will be no different either; however roles are not the same for the duo. Ganguly will find himself suited up in the commentary box, whereas Rahul Dravid will sweat it out in the middle to score his first ton on the Mecca of cricket.