Will Sourav Ganguly's entry help Pune Warriors in any way?

All eyes will be on former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who in all likelihood will make his IPL-IV debut for the Pune Warriors against Kings XI Punjab in Sunday's bottom of the table clash at the PCA Stadium here.

Kings XI have suffered five defeats from eight games but still stand a chance of making the last four as they have six games to go. Pune on the other hand are struggling.


Pune Warriors' Sourav Ganguly

Sadly for Ganguly, since the Warriors have lost seven out of their nine games this far, they are virtually out of contention for a place in the semi-finals is concerned, and so even a heroic knock or two from the influential left-hander could well go down the drain. To be fair to Pune, their injury list has been quite lengthy too with players like Angelo Mathews of Sri Lanka, Graeme Smith of South Africa, Tim Paine of Australia and lately Ashish Nehra out of action.

On the flip side though, the pressure will be off Ganguly's shoulders because if he does fail here, at least Pune's ouster will not be attributed to him.

However, Ganguly has already made it clear that he is not here for the money but to prove a point. As director of Pune Warriors, Abhijit Sarkar recently announced: "Ganguly is playing in IPL not for money but to prove a point. He deserves a lot of respect... not the way he has been treated (by Kolkata Knight Riders)."

Ganguly, who was the icon player for Shah Rukh Khan's Knight Riders in the first three seasons of the IPL, was not picked up by KKR or any other franchise at this year's player auction. And that, say insiders, has hurt the Prince of Kolkata to the extent that he is willing to put his reputation on th line in a bid to to prove his critics wrong. Ganguly's wife Dona too admitted that Dada's IPL-IV snub was very disappointing.

"It feels good that he has got an opportunity now. Players like him should be given freedom to decide when to quit. He should continue playing as long as he wishes," she said. Speaking about yet another comeback by her famous husband, she said: "I run a dance school and my students are performing in various cultural programmes but does that mean I stop performing. If you can keep yourself fit and can perform, then why not?".

There's not denying the fact that Ganguly is no stranger to both comebacksu00a0 and controversies. And on his day he can embarrass the deadliest of bowling attacks with his gift of timing (against pacers) and mastery at the use of his feet (against spin).

The closing stages of IPL-IV might just get interesting, thanks to this 'G' force.