5 brave captaincy decisions that altered the course of the tournament
Cricket has produced a number of great captains who have used their intellect to gain an upper hand for the team. Good captains always have great strategies, and they also implement it effectively on the field.
However, not every time does a captain get to implement his strategies as planned in the dressing room. A great captain is the one who changes his strategy when the situation changes. He adapts himself to different situations and alters his plan according on the field itself. There are a number of incidents in the history of cricket which show that a great captain can turn the game upside down just by using his intellect.
#5. Ganguly asking Laxman to replace Dravid at No 3
The Australian tour of India, 2001 can be considered a turning point in Indian cricket's history. It had an impact on Test cricket similar to what the 1983 World Cup win had in One Day cricket. Australia was the undisputed leader in world cricket at that time.
The Australian team was on a winning spree and had set a world record of 16 consecutive Test victories after winning the first match of the series in Mumbai by 10 wickets within 3 days. The Australian team was in ominous form and in the 2nd test at Kolkata they had scored 445 runs in the 1st Innings and bundled out India for a paltry 171.
Australia had asked India to follow on and in the second innings, India had a decent start losing the first wicket after a 50-run opening stand. After the loss of the opening wicket, Ganguly sprang a huge surprise which altered the course of the entire series. 'Dada' asked VVS Laxman to go in at Number 3 instead of Dravid.
The decision to bring in Laxman at number 3 and Dravid at number 5 proved to be a huge success as both of them performed brilliantly.
Laxman scored his highest Test score of 281, and Dravid scored 180 to set Australia a target of 384. As a result of this brave decision, Australia not only lost that match, but also the next match at Chennai, ultimately losing the series 2-1.