The Indian team was under the pump in more ways than one when it arrived in London for the second Test of the 1996 series. The team had come a cropper on the field, losing the one-day series and subsequently the first Test. There was no dearth of problems off the field, with Navjot Sidhu, the seniormost member of the side having packed his bags and flown back to India after being allegedly 'humiliated' by the skipper Mohammed Azharuddin. The captain also had been making news, but for all the wrong reasons. His relationship with Hindi film actress Sangeeta Bijlani, who was reportedly travelling with the team wherever it went, was making more news than his lack of batting form.

The side's saving grace was the vice-captain Sachin Tendulkar. His majestic 122 in the first Test at Edgbaston, Birmingham had delayed his team's defeat. The English spectators and media-personalities were raving about him, as were their Indian counterparts. Sir Don Bradman's declaration that Sachin reminded him of himself was fresh in people's minds, and the little champion was in no mood to let Sir Don down. With India losing the first Test of the three-match series and Azharuddin looking out of sorts, Tendulkar's elevation to the captaincy at the end of the series seemed a foregone conclusion.

But there was the little matter of two Test matches to be played before that happened, and there was every possibility that the Indian cricket team would be annihilated in both matches. Speedsters Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad had little or no support, with Anil Kumble struggling in the cold first half of the English summer. The batting, Tendulkar apart, had been a big let-down. Sidhu had already left, and the morale of the Indian supporters didn't exactly improve when it was announced ten minutes before the start of the second Test that Sanjay Manjrekar, another experienced head, had failed the fitness test.

England batted first and scored 344. The match began on a sombre note, with both sides lining up on the ground to welcome umpire Harold 'Dickie' Bird, one of cricket's most popular officials, who was standing in his last Test. The 'guard of honour' was English skipper Michael Atherton's idea, but if he expected any special favours in return, he was in for a huge disappointment. Bird upheld a confident leg-before appeal against him in the very first over!

The hosts recovered from that shaky beginning to post 344, with wicketkeeper Jack Russell top-scoring with 124. India's problems with the opening slot, which had been compounded by Sidhu's withdrawal, were reflected in the promotion of keeper Nayan Mongia to that critical position. The first wicket fell at 25, and in came Test debutant Sourav Ganguly. The Bengal left-hander's selection for the tour was arguably the most controversial in the history of Indian cricket. The selectors had been panned for replacing the swashbuckling Vinod Kambli with a batsman who hadn't been in good form in the 1995-96 season. Ganguly's presence in the team was attributed to the 'Bengal' factor, and the names of players who had won a place in the Indian team in the recent past purely because they represented Bengal were splashed all over the newspapers. In many ways, the ball was in Ganguly's court, and it was up to him to prove that he deserved his place among the top sixteen cricketers of the land.

His detractors were left speechless as he proceeded to essay a scintillating innings. His off-drives were tremendous, his flicks graceful, his attitude exemplary. Even the fall of Tendulkar to a vicious delivery by Chris Lewis did not affect him. When Tendulkar was quickly followed to the pavilion by Azharuddin and Jadeja, Ganguly was joined in the middle by another Test debutant. His name was Rahul Dravid.

Unlike Ganguly, Dravid's presence in the team was justified, for he had amassed tons of runs at the domestic level in the previous two seasons. He had demonstrated impeccable technique and prodigious run-hunger in junior-level and domestic cricket; could he do so at the international level?

This question was answered in the form of a splendid innings, during which Dravid witnessed Ganguly becoming the tenth Indian to score a hundred on Test debut. Dravid himself came very close to that landmark, ultimately falling only five runs short.

India went on to draw the Test with reasonable comfort. Even as the members of the team welcomed Ganguly to the 'century club' and hoped that Dravid would enter it very soon, India celebrated.

No longer would their cricket team be referred to as a 'one-man' team. 
 

- By Devendra Prabhudesai