Two of the best batsmen to have ever donned the Indian jersey, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid made their Test debut on exact this day (June 20) in 1996. The occasion was the 2nd Test of India’s 1996 Tour of England and the venue was the iconic Lords’s cricket Ground in London. After losing the first Test of the three-match series by 8 wickets, the visitors dropped Sanjay Manjrekar and Sunil Joshi in order to include two rookies. This Day That Year: Virat Kohli Makes His Test Debut Against West Indies in 2011 (Watch Video).

Mohammad Azharuddin and Co didn’t make a great start either in the Lord’s Test as the home side piled up 344 runs in the Green Lord’s track. In reply, India’s top-order batsmen couldn’t tackle the swinging deliveries of England pacer as the likes of Sachin Tendulkar (31) and skipper Azharuddin (16) failed to make a significant contribution. However, the debutant pair of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid joined forces and started their mission of tormenting bowlers.

Sourav Ganguly's Debut Innings!!

Both the batsmen neutralized the potent English pace attack and scored runs all over the park. The pair gave full respect to the good balls while they also dispatched the bad ones to the ropes. Ganguly went on to score a blistering century (131) while an unlucky Dravid was dismissed after scoring 95 runs.

Rahul Dravid's Test Innings!!

However, their effort guided India to a massive score of 429 and later, the match ended in a tie. Everyone was talking about the blitzes of the debutant as they cemented their place in the team. Ganguly also went to become India’s captain and guided them to many victories in both the formats. He ended his Test career in 2008 but not before scoring 7212 runs from 113 Test matches.

On the other hand, Dravid’s unpierceable technique earned him the nickname ‘The Wall.’ He ended his Test career in 2012 after scoring 13288 runs from 164 Test matches. Also, he has faced 31258 balls in the oldest format of the game which is most for any batsmen to date.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 20, 2020 01:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).