When Sourav Ganguly Trolled Ricky Ponting During a Toss

Considered as one of the most aggressive Indian captains, there's no doubt that "Dada" Sourav Ganguly changed the face of Indian cricket. However, Ganguly's stellar career saw several ups and downs.

From making Steve Waugh wait for the toss during the India-Australia series of 2001, to the ugly tiff with coach Greg Chappell, to taking his shirt off on the Lord’s balcony and waving it in the air after India's dramatic 326-run chase against England in 2002-- Ganguly has pretty much done it all.

But there's a lighter, a rather cheeky side to Dada which hardly meets the eye of cricket fans.

Well, as we see, Dada can be a troll too.

In his latest book Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians, Boria Majumdar, Consulting Editor, Sports, India Today Group , quotes Michael Clarke's verbatim on one such incident where Ganguly displayed his dadagiri.

The excerpt was first published on Cricbuzz.

Clarke who doesn't specifically remember the match, says Ganguly and Pointing were out at the toss during a match being played in India with Ponting holding the coin.

As soon as Ponting flipped the coin, Ganguly said, "Head-Tail", Clarke adds while cracking up.

He further adds that Ganguly's call came at a "lightning speed" leaving Ponting absolutely clueless.

"Ricky said he couldn't fathom what had happened with Dada having said Head-Tail. It had taken Ricky a second or two to come to grips with the situation and by that time the coin had come down."

"Ganguly just picked it up and said to Ponting, "We'll bat" and walked off. India had won the toss and were batting."

Clarke who had a good laugh while sharing the anecdote further adds that Ponting was unsure what really had unfolded during the toss and all he could do was narrate the bizarre incident to his team in the dressing room.

However, when a user (@Cricoholic) shared the screenshot of the funny excerpt from Majumdar's book on Twitter, several cricket fans pointed out that home captain spins the coin, while the visiting one calls, which in itself is in contradiction with Clarke's story.

Ganguly 😂 pic.twitter.com/4BBHpoHd3H

— Crickoholic (@Crickoholic) April 13, 2018

That's a made up story I guess. Home captain always spins the coin. So obviously not gonna happen.

— Muhamed Fasal (@muhamedfasal84) April 14, 2018

Told this to my dad a hard-core cricket buff - he pointed out this can't be true because visiting captain always calls

— ❓knowsnotmuch (@knowsnotmuch) April 14, 2018

To his credit, Clarke specifies that he doesn't remember the match (and must have forgotten the venue as well). But as Cricket Country rightly points out, the match didn't happen in India.