It sounded like the rudest, most impertinent question in the world. It was put to Indian coach John Wright at the end of the Test series against England and came thus: "John, do you think we missed a left-hander in the middle-order?" Sitting next to Wright was Sourav Ganguly, captain of India, middle-order batsman and er ... left-hander.

Ouch.

Wright picked up the mike but before he could reply, he had lost the battle to keep a poker face. "We've one," he said, grin spreading and causing an outbreak of titters. Ganguly, unsurprisingly, had no difficulty keeping his face straight.

The question was not malicious because the interrogator had meant to ask whether India lacked a second left-hander to tackle the mind-numbing monotony of the England spin attack. Either way, it was a fair query. All through 2001, India have missed a left-hander in the middle order. There used to be a bloke called S.C. Ganguly who once did the job well enough to be given that hyperbolic name-tag: God of the Off-side. When his alter ego goes out to bat for India these days, that particular description mocks him most. Today the slip cordon fills up faster than a cinema hall on first-day, first-show; point and gully rub their hands in preparation, and fights break out between fast bowlers, every man itching for a bowl.

As 2001 wound down, the temperature has turned up on the Indian captain. This year, he averaged 22.2 in Tests (see box), with a single fifty. It has been two years and counting since his last Test hundred and a selector growls, "Mike Brearleys don't work in Indian cricket." It's not captaincy that has affected Ganguly's Test batting, it's his batting which has turned into a hydra-headed monster that threatens whatever progress he may have made as leader. When, as captain, Krishnamachari Srikkanth went through a lean patch he would open team meetings with an apology. After a while, even apologies wear thin.

Chairman of selectors Chandu Borde says any decision on the leadership would only happen, if at all, after the one-dayers against England. That may be an empty exercise because in South Africa, Ganguly re-established his mastery of the short game: switching to a lighter bat, he hit two hundreds and a fifty to take his year's tally in one-day cricket to 813 runs from 23 matches at an average 36.95.

A couple of weeks later in the Tests he got a fair peppering of the short stuff and a packed off-side cordon. Ganguly's own analysis of the problem has tended to be bare-boned. "There has been no slump in form as such. I have been getting out in the 40s too many number of times and that is a matter of concern," he said in Bangalore. It is a comforting illusion: in 23 Test innings this year, Ganguly has been dismissed for under 20 no less than15 times. What has lasted longer than his visitations at the crease is the memory of the predictability of his dismissals. His critics are crowing that he has finally been found out by the fast bowler's grapevine. Those on his side say it is only a class player's loss of form.

Despite the bravado, the Indian captain is worried. In South Africa, he talked late into the night with left-handed legend Graeme Pollock. During the England series, he sought out another southpaw, David Gower, on a flight out of Ahmedabad for a piece of advice. Gower, a touch player like Ganguly but with a greater array of shots, was sympathetic. "Everything you do as a batsman is instinctive. When you practice, what you're really doing is training your instinct. When your instinct lets you down, you have a problem." Ganguly's, he said, could perhaps be distilled into something as instinctive as watching the ball. Failure to do so makes the short ball a lethal means to his wicket: either directly through the gloved edge or indirectly by choking the runs and inducing the chase outside the off stump.

SITTING DUCK: South Africans celebrate the fall of Ganguly's wicket; the captain gets out of the way (right)

When it happens innings after innings, indecision grows. In Ganguly's case, indecision about the impending arrival of the bouncer has, many believe, dominated his batting. Coach Wright told TV channel Aaj Tak, "I think he has a problem in that he keeps looking for the bouncer when it is not there. It does affect your footwork."

Former Test batsman Sanjay Manjrekar believes the gap between Ganguly's ability and his recent scores lies in the mind. When Andrew Flintoff bowled four short balls to Ganguly in the last over of the Ahmedabad Test the Indian ducked one, pulled another, swayed out of the line of the third and defended the fourth. "It showed me he could do all of this. What he must do now is try and get his confidence back by playing every single game he gets. His fielding has nosedived and he needs to put in extra sessions there too."

There is a sense of deja vu about Ganguly today: when his poor form was being discussed after the home series against Australia earlier this year, his elder brother and former Bengal Ranji player Snehasis had said that skipping domestic cricket-he is easily bored by it-in the run-up to the series had proved a mistake. The bowling may be below world standard but spending time at the crease trains the mind to concentrate for hours. The longest Ganguly's batted at a stretch all year has been three hours and seven minutes in Kandy. It won India a Test match. Once again, he has time off and the chance to put his game together. He has proved that he is tough enough to do that in one-dayers. The longer version makes no concessions like field restrictions and accommodates far fewer short cuts. Sourav Ganguly's mettle is once again being put to test.