Watch: Jos Buttler shares a fanboy moment involving two stalwarts of Indian cricket

Swashbuckling wicket keeper batsman from England, Jos Buttler who is currently a part of the Mumbai Indians squad in the IPL shared one of his earliest cricketing fanboy moments involving two stalwarts of Indian Cricket. It was the 1999 World Cup held in England and Wales and the Men in Blue was set to meet Sri Lanka at Taunton in one of the group games.

Jos Buttler who hails from Somerset went to watch that game and was left awestruck with the audacious strokeplay by especially Sourav Ganguly with Rahul Dravid giving him terrific support. The duo shared a record 318 runs partnership for the 2nd wicket which remains the 3rd highest partnership for any wicket in the history of limited overs cricket.

When Ganguly and Dravid went hammers and tongs in Taunton 

Mumbai Indians shared a video on their official twitter handle which saw Buttler relieving his fanboy moments in Taunton and how Aravinda de Silva had taken away his away while giving him an autograph. “I went to watch India against Sri Lanka at Taunton in a World Cup game, and Ganguly got 183 I think and Dravid got about 150. Taunton was Somerset – my home. Watching these guys play against Muralitharan and smashing him out of the ground into the river – that was probably my earliest fanboy moments of cricket, watching those guys,” Buttler said.

When Aravinda de Silva stole Buttler’s pen

“I used to try and get everyone’s autographs; You can run around the boundary and get autographs. I remember Aravinda de Silva, I was trying to get his autograph and then something must have happened. He’d take my pen, he had signed, and then he must have got moved or something, so he ran off. And he ran off with my pen. And I remember running back to my mum crying that Aravinda de Silva had stolen my pen,” he added.

Ganguly and Dravid went berserk that day and deposited the Sri Lankan bowlers all around Taunton. It was a sensational display of batsmanship by the legendary duo and courtesy their innings India posted a huge total of 373 in 50 overs. Despite the victory, India was eliminated in the Super Six stage and it was Australia under the captaincy of Steve Waugh who lifted the coveted title for the 2nd time in their history.