23rd June 1996 saw two Indian future greats establishing themselves on the hallowed turf of Lord's. They could have become the first pair from the same country to score debut hundreds but eventually, only Sourav Ganguly could score a hundred whereas Rahul Dravid fell on nervous nineties. It was just the beginning of a great era for Indian cricket as both Ganguly and Dravid went on to achieve great heights with their batting as well as captaincy and became legends of the game.
In total, they have scored more than 20,000 test runs (Dravid 13,000+ and Ganguly 7,000+) and 21,000 one day runs (11,000+ for Ganguly and 10,000+ for Dravid) for India in the next 12-13 years. Also, they have 52 test hundreds and 34 ODI hundreds together to add to their records.
In their first innings, they added 94 runs and throughout the years they batted pretty well in partnership. In total, they have added more than 7,500 runs in partnership. In tests, 3,294 runs came with 10-century partnerships. For ODIs, it was 4,332 runs with 11 hundred partnerships.
One of their most memorable partnerships came during the 1999 World Cup at the Cooper Associates County Ground in Taunton. Against the defending champions Sri Lanka the duo put up 318 runs as Ganguly scored 183 and Dravid 145. Interestingly there second highest partnership also came that year, barely two months before the World Cup against the same opponents in Nagpur. That time, Ganguly scored 130 and Dravid scored 116.
In test cricket, their top two partnerships came against New Zealand. The highest partnership between them was unbeaten 194 came at Seddon Park, Hamilton. It was the same test match where Dravid scored centuries on both innings for the first time. With India to bat out more than 50 overs in the fourth innings for a draw, the partnership started at 55 for 2 and both remained not out with hundreds. The second highest partnership of 182 came at Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad in 2003 where Dravid scored a double century and Ganguly a century.
