The Indian Premier League (IPL), even if temporarily, has seen Ganguly take off the mask he wore after his comeback to the national side. The former skipper, on his return to Team India, seemed to keep his distance from the core group and quietly went about his job. But suddenly, from gracefully adjusting to a life as a commoner, he finds himself in a leadership role again with a golden helmet on his head. And the famous aggression has suddenly returned.

Helping Ganguly be his old self are a couple of factors that are, once again, a throwback to those heady days in the early 2000s. Like John Wright, Kolkata coach John Buchanan is a methodical man who who goes by the book. The low-key Aussie doesn’t mind backing Ganguly’s famous instincts. A case in point is the drama surrounding Shoaib Akhtar’s IPL debut against the Delhi Daredevils. Within minutes of nearing the Kolkata Knight Riders camp, one heard stories about how Buchanan wasn’t keen to draft the not- quite-fully-fit Akhtar in the XI but it was Ganguly who talked him into changing the decision before the Delhi match.

His colleagues say — perhaps even exaggerate a little — that ‘Dadi’ saw the hunger to play in Shoaib’s eyes and, like in the past, defied conventional logic to back him. These days, Kolkata isn’t churning out stories about their tragic hero’s against-all-odds comeback. Intead, tales about Ganguly’s inspirational leadership are back in circulation.

One big difference

The one big difference between the sides Ganguly has led in the past and Knight Riders is Akhtar. During his days as India captain, Ganguly had one big regret — the absence of an express quick in his line-up. “I think I’m destined only to face real fast bowlers. I never get a real quick in my side,” he had said. Bowlers with a lower reading on the speedometer such as Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra had been always on Ganguly’s favourites list during his stint as India captain.

It was this trio that was responsible for the biggest high of the Ganguly-Wright era — a place in the 2003 World Cup final. “Now if we just get one genuine fast bowler in this team, we’ll be unbeatable,” Ganguly had then said .

Akhtar provides him with the fire-power that he so desperately wanted. At Kolkata the other day, as Akhtar was running through the Delhi top-order, Ganguly jumped around like a child who had finally got what he had always dreamed of. And the big smile on Akhtar’s face on Tuesday had not faded at Wankhede today, providing an interesting off-shoot to the story: If Ganguly has never got a pacer like Akhtar in his line-up, some experts say the Rawalpindi Express has never quite got a skipper who backed him to the hilt.

Mutual trust

The presence of a number of young locals in the side — all part of a generation that grew up idolising the Prince of Kolkata — has meant Ganguly isn’t short of committed soldiers. Throwing the ball to Laxmi Ratan Shukla for the first time during the final stages of the close contest against Delhi Daredevils wasn’t a gamble like one had thought. Ganguly has seen the all-rounder since his early days and was aware that he could deliver at the crunch. “Dadi has faith in me when it comes to such situations. I had to keep the trust going,” said Shukla.