England wicketkeeper-batsman Jos Buttler has recently said Indian legends Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly’s explosive hundreds in a 1999 World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka had an “incredible impact” on him during his formative years.
The swashbuckling English batsman further said the legendary duo of Ganguly and Dravid were his source of inspiration, inspiring him to take up cricket as a career option.
So long before the T20 revolution took the game by storm, the legendary Indian batsmen showed an unmatched elegance and played some outrageous strokeplay to put on a batting performance to remember for life during an ODI game against Sri Lanka in Taunton in the 1999 Cricket World Cup.
Ganguly and Dravid both hit incredible hundreds as well as stitched together a mammoth partnership of 318 runs for the second wicket to set up an easy win of 157 runs for India against Sri Lanka in Taunton. Dravid was the highest scorer in the 1999 World Cup with 461 runs.
Buttler told Cricbuzz, “Those were my formative years, and watching that game with Ganguly and Dravid scoring big hundreds had an incredible impact.”
The 30-year-old right-hander was also surprised by the massive Indian presence in the crowd for a 1999 World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka in England.
He signed off by saying, “India versus Sri Lanka in 1999 World Cup was my first experience of seeing Indian crowds and that ignites the fire of how passionate people are about the game and how cool it would be to play in a World Cup.”
(With PTI Inputs)
