Missing Maharaj

On the cusp of some personal glory — he could, in this series, become India’s most successful Test skipper ever — Ganguly was spotted sporting a mournful look through much of the afternoon as his team practiced.

Yet, they will miss him more because Ganguly, dipping form and all, is the team’s soul, the man pulling the strings. He may not be missed with the bat — though the ODIs showed him somewhere near his form — but his hectoring, badgering, glowering presence on the field will be missed.

Not least of all because of the nature of the opposition. It requires a certain kind of steel to take on Pakistan and their captain-by-proxy Javed Miandad. Dravid is polished MBA steel; Ganguly is steel wool, rough, abrasive and effective. You can beat Miandad only by outwitting him; Dravid lives on his intellect, Ganguly on his wit.

How much of a difference Ganguly makes as a captain to the team can be gauged from India’s performances the last time he was absent, in Mohali against New Zealand last October. No disrespect to Dravid but heads were drooping, minds wandering, bodies listless and India were in danger of losing of a series at home.

Apart from firing up his team, Ganguly also acts as a lightning conductor for the opposition’s fire. He rubs up opponents the wrong way, getting under their skin and up their noses, all a carefully choreographed act designed to provoke and, thereby, distract the enemy. The Australians hate his guts, more so because he took the wind out of their sails by scoring a century in the very first Test Down Under last winter.

Even the Pakistan team, especially Shoaib Akhtar put in that extra effort when sees Ganguly, not least because of the Indian skipper’s recent statements about him.

When he was off the field for much of Pakistan’s innings in the deciding ODI at Lahore, Ganguly directed traffic from the dressing room; his eagerness to return to the field was evident. And when the match was won and he met his players, the mutual admiration was clear.

Tomorrow, and for the next four days, those players will hope that some of their skipper’s brio would have rubbed off onto them.