June 20 is a special day. It saw three Test captains, across two generations of Indian cricket, take guard as rookies. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid against England at Lord's in 1996. Virat Kohli against West Indies at Kingston in 2011; Abhinav Mukund and Praveen Kumar earned their Test caps on the same day.
Sourav Ganguly (1996 vs England at Lord's): The left-hander walked in at No. 3. The ball was seaming but it didn't bother Ganguly. He was imperious through the off-side, batting for 435 minutes, for a handsome 131 comprising 20 fours. He also picked up three wickets, in two innings, with his right-arm medium pace. The match ended in a draw.
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Rahul Dravid (1996 vs England at Lord's): Dravid made his debut in the same Test match. Despite batting at No. 7, he came close to scoring a hundred. The right-hander was dismissed for 95 but the job was done. Dravid had big boots to fill; he had replaced Sanjay Manjrekar.
Virat Kohli (2011 vs West Indies at Kingston): This Test belonged to Dravid who scored a magnificent 112 in the second innings to extend India's lead. Kohli, batting at No. 5, returned with scores of 4 and 15. But it was a start for the current Indian captain, who was also part of the World Cup winning team in 2011.
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Abhinav Mukund (2011 vs West Indies at Kingston): In the same Test, Tamil Nadu batsman Mukund opened the innings with his state-mate Murali Vijay. He scored 11 and 25.
Praveen Kumar (2011 vs West Indies at Kingston): The swing bowler from Meerut reaped the benefits. He picked up six wickets, three in each innings, to help India close in on victory. Kumar got Darren Bravo twice and in the second innings, he removed Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
(Trivia: Mohandas Menon)
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