On this day: Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli make Test debuts for India
On June 20, 1996, Ganguly and Dravid made their India Test debuts together, and 15 years later on the exact same day, Kohli became India’s 269th Test player.
The date June 20 holds plenty of significance in Indian cricket, for it was on this very date that three of India's finest batsman made their Test debuts. On June 20, 1996 against England, two youngsters in Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid took their first stride as Test cricketers and cemented themselves as pillars of the Indian cricket for years to come, and 15 years later, a 22-year-old Virat Kohli played his first Test for India – against West Indies – three years after playing his first ODI.
Ganguly celebrated the occasion by becoming the 10th Indian batsman to register a century on Test debut, while Dravid missed out on the landmark by five runs. However, the impact these two innings made would go a long way in establishing Dravid and Ganguly as the two most important figures in India's Test middle order. Ganguly and Dravid would go on to become two of India's best batsmen – forming part of the Fab Five, and later be appointed Test captains.
Ganguly played 113 Tests for India, scoring 7212 runs at an average of 42.17 with 16 centuries and 35 fifties, before retiring after the 2008 Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India. Ganguly enjoyed a fine captaincy reign as under him, India won 21 Tests out of 49 matches. He led India to their first Test win in Australia in 22 years and a first-ever Test series win in Pakistan.
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Dravid ended his career in 2012, having scored 13288 runs from 164 Tests at an average of 52.31. Under Dravid, India registered their first-ever Test win in South Africa in 2006 and won a series in England after 21 years when they won 1-0 in 2007. Dravid even led India to their first Test series win in West Indies in the year 2006. However, with eight wins from 25 Tests, Dravid had a win percentage of just 32 percent in the format, although it was much better in ODIs with 53.16 percent.
As the new era of Indian cricket dawned, Kohli made his Test debut three years after Ganguly was done with his career and a year before Dravid would retire. Kohli's Test debut was during the first Test of India's tour of West Indies in 2011. Even though the then-promising youngster could only score 4 and 15 in the match, India won the Test by 63 runs. However, despite a lacklustre Test debut, Kohli showed tremendous improvement to become one of the world's best batsmen going around at the moment. In 86 Tests, Kohli has scored 7240 runs at an average of 53.62 with 27 hundreds and 22 half-centuries.
After being appointed India's full-time captain in 2015, Kohli has become India's best Test captain leading the team to 33 wins and the first captain to lead India to a series win in Australia after 71 years.
