Toughest day of my cricketing career: Ganguly

Hyderabad: After his much-awaited appearance for Pune Warriors, Sourav Ganguly said padding up for this season's Indian Premier League (IPL) was the "toughest day" of his career and he took the field with "zero confidence", not having picked up a bat for five months.

Ganguly, who initially went unsold at the players' auction, came in as a late replacement for Ashish Nehra. There was much speculation about Ganguly's IPL fate since the January auction which saw no franchise, including his home team Kolkata Knight Riders, showing interest in the former India captain.

As Ganguly walked out to bat against Deccan Chargers, one drop at the fall of Jesse Ryder, the packed stadium went up in a huge roar. He did no harm to his reputation and provided joy to his die-hard fans, scoring an unbeaten 32 off 32 balls with three fours and a trademark six, stepping out to clout leg-spinner Amit Mishra.

"I told people that probably it is going to be the toughest day of my career. I did not pick up the bat for five months after the auction and here I was playing Dale Steyn," Ganguly said after Warriors beat Deccan Chargers by six wickets.

"I came into the match with zero confidence. The anticipation is not there in the field. Hopefully, I will get that back spending some time in the middle. Fielding will also get better."

"So far it has been good," he said when asked about how he felt out in the middle.

"I could not have played the match against Mumbai Indians because I joined the team the night before. I did not play the next match against Kings XI Punjab because I wanted to get ready for this match," said Ganguly.