Chennai, Oct. 4: Sourav Ganguly slipped quietly out of town after his twin failures in the Challenger series. His last realistic chance of making a comeback in one-day cricket before the World Cup may have passed him by already even if the chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar keeps talking of open doors and open minds.

Known for the fighting qualities he took to the extent of being seen to be uppity when in charge of the destinies of Team India, Ganguly is now searching for that elusive adrenaline flow from the pit of the stomach. Does he have it in him to battle on when on the cricket field?

And how long will the media that have made a business out of the emotions surrounding his exit from the team keep up the charade of support if he keeps failing like this? Team India may have fared poorly at the start of the season. On the more familiar home ground, they are bound to pick up the threads soon, obviating the need for comebacks by 34-year-olds.

There were runs aplenty in the Challenger series played on pitches with a bit of spongy bounce to them when the ball was new. Once the ball lost its sheen, batsmen ruled the roost. As opener, Ganguly faced the greater challenge of playing the new ball as it bounced around like a tennis ball. He somehow seemed to lack the bottle that used to carry him again through such challenges.

A place in the Rest of India XI may have been a lifeline for him; that too has eluded him. He may have been walking into the sunset in his team’s second game when he failed more conclusively than in his first essay in which he spanked a few offside boundaries with an old élan even if the body language betrayed the tensions within him.

The ups and downs in Team India’s performances will always leave space for Ganguly to be a talking point. Every time the team underperforms, someone will wistfully think of Ganguly as the answer to all of India’s batting woes and opinions would fly across the ether in SMSes on mobile phones.

The truth is his selection may no longer be in the selectors’ hands. Unless the new BCCI under Sharad Pawar suddenly changes tack, it is on the cards that Ganguly’s swansong may already have passed, as represented by a mishit hook shot in the Karachi Test early this year as well as the shuffle that failed for him to be leg before to the fast medium bowler Abdul Razzaq who took his wicket in both innings.