5 careers which never took off under Sourav Ganguly's captaincy
Sourav Ganguly's reign as skipper of the Indian cricket team is widely regarded as a game changer in the history of Indian cricket as the team developed the habit of winning overseas and standing toe-to-toe with the opposition.
Ganguly took over as skipper at a time when Indian cricket was struggling to come out of the shadow cast by the match-fixing scandal.
Sachin Tendulkar briefly took over the responsibility for a short period after the match-fixing scandal, but in Ganguly, the Men in Blue found a true leader who had the inherent fire and desire to achieve greatness.
Ganguly's reign also saw several young players establish themselves in the Indian side and ultimately went on to be great players in the modern age. The likes of Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh are just a few worth mentioning.
However, there were quite a few players who failed to make a mark for themselves on a long-term basis despite getting enough chances to prove their mettle.
Ganguly was a skipper who demanded a lot from his players and perhaps these players couldn't quite live up to the skipper's expectations and ultimately disappeared from the international scene after a brief spell at the international level.
Let's take a look at 5 such players who made their Indian debut under Ganguly's captaincy from whom a lot was expected but ultimately failed to have a fruitful career at the international level.
#5 Reetinder Singh Sodhi
The skipper of the Under-15 World Cup winning squad and vice-captain and vital member of the 2000 Under-19 World Cup winning squad that featured the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif, a lot was expected from the talented young all-rounder from Punjab - even being heralded as the next Kapil Dev.
Reetinder Singh Sodhi made his senior national debut against Zimbabwe under Ganguly's captaincy and enjoyed moderate success against the African minnows. scoring a half-century in the fifth and final ODI of the series and followed it up with a knock of 67 against West Indies a couple of matches later.
However, runs soon started to dry out from Sodhi's bat and he proved equally ineffective with the ball failing to get the breakthrough that was expected from a player who was touted as a long-term player at the Number 6 spot for India in 50-over cricket.
The huge pressure on his shoulders was something Sodhi was unable to handle and he eventually found himself out of contention from the Indian side. He played 18 ODIs scoring 280 runs and picking up 5 wickets.