Before I start this answer,I would like to declare that no one,absolutely no one could force a player of the calibre of Sourav Ganguly to retire.
Even in his interviews later,talking about his retirement,he had said that every sportsperson has to stop at some point,and he felt that it was an ideal time for him to retire.
Now,as a fan,I’d like to answer whether his retirement at the age of 35 was early or not.
Short answer-
In ODIs- NO,his retirement was absolutely perfectly timed.
In tests- YES,his retirement was a tad too early.
Long answer-
Lets talk about ODIs first-
Ganguly took international retirement in 2008,but he was out of favour in ODIs since 2007.
Yes,he scored 1240 runs in 30 ODI innings in 2007,at an average of 44.3. But his S/R was a meagre 73. Infact,barring Ian Bell,no player had a S/R in the 70s,amongst those who finished amongst the top 10 ODI run-getters that year.
The game was revolutionizing,and the minimal S/R in ODIs in the 2007s was atleast 80.
In 2008,he lost his opener’s spot to Gautam Gambhir.
Lets see how Gambhir fared in 2008- 1119 runs in 27 innings,at an average of 47 and a S/R of 91!
So tell me,how could have Dada stayed in the team,when Gambhir was simply destroying the opposition?
This closed doors on Dada,as far as ODIs were concerned,and so his ODI retirement was absolutely justified.
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Now in tests-
Ganguly’s numbers in tests were simply mesmerizing in 2007. 1106 runs in 19 innings,at an average of 62 was simply 😍.
Infact,in 2008,he averaged 36,which was significantly higher than Rahul Dravid’s average of 31.
But criticisms were always flaring against Ganguly,simply for no reason. Some complained about his fitness- but the truth was that,Ganguly was looking extremely fit in 2008,and had improved his running between the wickets to a great extent.
It is really sad and surprising that Ganguly had saved and made the careers of many players during his captaincy,but no one stood by his side during his bad times.
I still strongly feel that Ganguly could have crossed atleast 10k test runs,if he could play till atleast 2012,like Dravid did.
Yes,his test retirement in 2008 was quite early.
Extremely heart-broken to hear about his heart attack. Wising DADA a speedy recovery. 😊