Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly & Laxman: 20 years on from Class of 96

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  • 45,202 Test runs in a single frame

    In sport, it is often highly difficult to plot causality with a high degree of precision. It is a challenge to identify the matches and the moments that lie on the fault-lines of history – the moments when the game was changed forever by the emergence of new tactics or new personalities. There is usually plenty of overlap, plenty of false dawns and plenty of mixed records, making it tough to pinpoint these moments contemporaneously.

    Hindsight is a useful tool that aids writers and historians in making sense of milestones in cricket history. It is, in fact, almost essential to identifying the birth of Indian cricket’s very own Class of ‘96. We can, believe it or not, tell you exactly when it was formed.

    The summer of 1996 was a time of instability in Indian politics. Narasimha Rao’s time as Prime Minister had come to an end and his successor, Atal Bihari Vajapyee of the Bharatiya Janata Party, had lasted a mere 13 days, a short tenure brought to a close as he was unable to gather enough support for a majority. It was against this constantly shifting backdrop at home that the Indian cricket team flew to England for their first series there in six years.

    There was more to follow. Five days before the first Test commenced at Edgbaston, H.D. Deve Gowda succeeded Vajpayee to become India’s eleventh Prime Minister. Alongside the changing political situation, the cricket team was reflecting society’s own fresh-faced optimism and enthusiasm for the second half of the 1990s.

    It was at the end of this tour that Mohammad Azharuddin was removed as captain after almost seven years. Sachin Tendulkar then took over, a young leader with new ideas and a golden touch to his batting. It was appropriate that a young captain would need an enthusiastic young side to accompany him as he would hopefully lead India to the top of the world game.

    Those enthusiastic young men were the Class of ’96. The tour of England was that symbolic moment, that inevitable, irreversible changing of the guard. It is surprising how easy it is to mark India’s Britannic jaunt as the exact moment the character and composition of the side underwent a transformation, bringing with it three iconic names who would dominate the side for the next decade and a half and leave a host of brilliant memories, trophies and, significantly, change in attitude as their legacy.

    Except this perception is not wholly accurate. True, the two most outstanding finds from that tour are the poster boys of the Class of ’96 – Sourav Ganguly, a left-hander from Kolkata, and Rahul Dravid, a 23-year-old who had learned his cricket in Bangalore – but they were only two of four (soon to become five) promising names.

    It was also a debut series for Vikram Rathour and Venkatesh Prasad, but they were not to last. Rathour was a disappointment and scarcely played for India after that tour, while Prasad was mostly an effective time-slot hit. Dravid and Ganguly zoomed ahead, soon to be joined by VVS Laxman, an elegant, stylish batsman from Hyderabad, who quickly completed the trio upon his debut in a home series against the South Africans at the back end of 1996 – Tendulkar’s first full series as captain.

    The core of the side that endured for the best part of the following decade-and-a-half was not entirely a product of that historic tour. Some members, such as Tendulkar and Anil Kumble were already immersed, while other positions (openers, wicket-keeper) continued to undergo much experimentation as India sought a winning combination for the 1990s and beyond. Even Ganguly, who was playing his first Test at Lord’s, had been on the tour of Australia in 1991-92, playing one disastrous ODI against the West Indies and supposedly fermenting trouble due to his capricious attitude.

    Ganguly (131) and Dravid (95) – the latter of whom earned the crowd’s appreciation for walking off following a contentious decision in what was umpire Dickie Bird’s final Test, an early example of Dravid’s honest approach to the game – began at Lord’s, almost becoming the first pair of Test debutants in the same team to score hundreds. Laxman joined them at Ahmedabad five months later. It was the start of an incredible story.

    The runs they scored, the centuries they made, the conditions they grappled with, the match-winning performances they registered, the sheer number of years they played – all are there in the record pages or on web archives to gape at and admire. It seems almost silly to mention Dravid has amassed 13,288 Test runs, or that Ganguly has 72 ODI fifties to his name, or that the mere mention of the name ‘Laxman’ and/or the number ‘281’ is enough to strike fear and loathing into the hearts of Australians. It is beyond question that they are among India’s greatest ever players, and enshrined in the wider sport’s consciousness as men who left their mark on the game.

    But what also deserves an equal, if not greater, amount of credit is the way their strong personalities and awe-inspiring style of play became representative of Indian cricket in the years following Tendulkar’s resignation as captain. The Mumbai batsman had endured an unhappy time as skipper, and seemed to lose his way for a while, dogged by injury and loss of form. ‘God’ seemed fallible, but by this time the collective efforts of Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman ensured India were not simply perceived as ‘Sachin plus 10’.

    It was under the black cloud of the match-fixing scandal that Ganguly became captain in 2000. His approach to cricket and leadership scarcely differed. Ganguly instilled energy, purpose and an abrasiveness in a side that often lacked those characterostics. It was under his stewardship than India began to regularly win abroad for the first time and thus overcame a tremendous psychological hurdle.

    “The 2001 Kolkata Test was the perfect swirl of elements – Ganguly’s bold leadership, Laxman’s striking defiance and Dravid’s often underappreciated class and quality.”

    It was remarkable that Ganguly motivated his side to impressive highs – the 2003 World Cup final among them – as in this period his own performances brought him a hardly inspiring five Test hundreds in five years and a little over 2500 runs in 49 matches as skipper. To inspire others when your own performance was often below-par requires tremendous character, and Ganguly gave Indian cricket the fight it badly needed.

    Luckily, he had Dravid to support him. Dravid’s reputation as one of cricket’s most important figures in recent history is not only due to his superb batting, hard work and astute mind, but also as a paragon of professionalism, selflessness, team ethic and practice.

    He was truly brilliant under Ganguly; 12 hundreds and 4665 runs in the period spanning 2000-2004 tell their own story, and this was at a time when he was often keeping wickets in ODIs (a role he performed all through the 2003 World Cup). And to cap off this colossal contribution, his time as captain, following Ganguly in the role, led India to series wins in England and the West Indies for the first time in eons.

    Laxman never achieved the bulky, statistical significance of his classmates, but his frequent, often victorious duels with the mighty Australians over the years and masterful, wristy strokeplay was a treat to watch. He was often obscured by the bigger names of Ganguly, Dravid and Tendulkar during some of the most productive and fruitful years that Indian cricket has enjoyed, but no one who ever say him had any doubts about his quality or his finesse. Plus, he has six tremendous hundreds to his name between 2007 and 2011. If no one else, then the Australians will certainly never forget him.

    Eden Gardens

    The Indian team celebrates the historic Test win in 2001

    Fittingly, despite all they achieved, the trio’s defining moment was perhaps the defining moment of Indian cricket’s reinvention in the new millennium. The 2001 Kolkata Test was the perfect swirl of elements – it was a fittingly accurate representation of Ganguly’s bold leadership, Laxman’s striking defiance and Dravid’s often underappreciated class and quality (he made 180 alongside Laxman, as the latter raced to what was then the highest score for an Indian in Tests).

    And most of all, it was representative of the combination of grit, intelligence and style that turned the cricket team into the pride of India – qualities that defined the Class of ’96 like no other.

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