India-Australia Test rivalry: 10 interesting stories from 13 series over 77 years

India and Australia will lock horns in a five-match Test series starting in Perth on November 22. It will be the 14th time that the Asian side will go Down Under for a Test series. The hosts have won eight of the 13 series played so far, while India won two. Three series were drawn. The history of the India-Australia Test rivalry is replete with interesting stories, mainly when the games were played in Australia. India’s first-ever visit to Australia occurred between November 1947 and February 1948 while the latest one happened in 2020-21.

We list here 10 interesting things that happened on the field in the Australia-India Test series over seven decades to suggest how engaging the rivalry has been.

Sir Donald Bradman’s hit-wicket dismissal: India toured Australia for the first time in 1947-48 when it was a newly independent nation under the captaincy of Lala Amarnath. The first Test of the five-match series was played in Melbourne. Australia won the toss and elected to bat, and Bradman played a majestic knock, slamming 185 in 336 balls. But he was denied a double century by his Indian counterpart as he got out hit-wicket. It was the only time the legendary batter got out in such a manner. Australia went on to win that match by an innings and 226 runs by dismissing India for 58 and 98 after declaring their innings on 382 for 8.

ML Jaisimha comes to India’s rescue just hours after arrival: It happened during India’s second visit to Australia for a Test series in 1967-68. Trailing 0-2 after facing heavy defeats in the first two matches, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi’s side was desperately looking to salvage some pride. ML Jaisimha, one of India’s finest batters, was picked for the third game in Brisbane. It was after more than a year that he was playing international cricket. He scored a gritty 74 in the first innings alongside Pataudi, but India still fell short of Australia’s first-innings total by 100 runs. The hosts then scored 294 in their second innings to set India a target of 395. Not many had given the visitors a chance, but Jaisimha scored a hundred, which kept his side in the hunt. However, he was the last man to get out as India were bowled out for 355, falling short by just 39 runs.

So close yet so far for India: Every team wants to win a Test series in Australia to establish its cricketing reputation. It was no different for India but while its mission succeeded for the first time only in 2018-19, it could have been achieved as early as in 1977-78 when Australia won 3-2. Led by Bishan Singh Bedi, India lost the first two Tests narrowly (by 16 runs and two wickets, respectively) before making a strong comeback to level the series 2-2. Powered by some solid performances by spinners BS Chandrasekhar and Erapalli Prasanna, India hammered Australia by 222 runs and an innings and 2 runs in the third and fourth Test, respectively, to make the decider in Adelaide interesting. India were set a target of 493 runs to win a historic Test series but got all out for 447 with Mohinder Amarnath top-scoring with 86.

Injured Kapil Dev’s match-winning magic: Kapil Dev needs no introduction, but his show with the ball on the fifth day of the third Test match in Melbourne in 1981 is no less significant than the World Cup victory two years later. Trailing 0-1 in the three-game series, India, led by Sunil Gavaskar, conceded a 182-run lead in the first innings of the third Test in Melbourne and scored 324 in the second essay, setting a modest total of 143 for Australia to make it 2-0. Kapil Dev, who couldn’t score many runs, was carrying an injury. Sensing his team needed his services, the legendary all-rounder took pain-relieving injections to take the field with a bandaged thigh and produced a magical spell to take five wickets for 28 runs after coming to bowl the second change. Australia were bowled out for 83 to give India 59-run victory.

Fuming Gavaskar intends to walk away: Controversies are not new in the Australia-India series Down Under, and one of the worst came when Sunil Gavaskar, captain of the visiting side, threatened to walk away from the game after being given an LBW decision in the bowling of Dennis Lillee. In the same match in which Kapil Dev later picked up five wickets to gift India a famous victory, a furious Gavaskar was seen asking his non-striker partner Chetan Chauhan to walk out of the ground, raising the possibility of a forfeit. It was because of the timely intervention of the Indian manager, Shahid Durrani, that things did not go too far. Gavaskar had added 165 runs with Chauhan at the time of the controversial dismissal, as he claimed the ball had hit his bat. He later regretted his decision and said he should not have reacted in that manner.

Shane Warne’s forgettable debut: He went on to become the king in the art of leg-spin bowling, but the late Shane Warne’s debut match against India in Sydney, his home ground, in January 1992 was far from memorable. As a 23-year-old, Warne was up against the best spin-playing nation in the world then and was clobbered by the India batters. He conceded 150 runs in 45 overs and took the only wicket of Ravi Shastri, who also treated him brutally en route to his double hundred. Warne faced similar treatment from India in later years, but he was feared by most other nations as he evolved, finishing with 708 scalps in 145 games.

VVS Laxman’s counter-attacking 167: It was in his 17th Test match that VVS Laxman made a point that he was not playing international cricket to remain in the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly. And where else did he choose to make his statement, other than Australia, his favorite opponent? The stylish Hyderabadi batter stood like a rock among the ruins in the third Test match in Sydney, where the visitors were beaten by an innings and 141 runs, slamming 167 in just 198 balls against an attack that had the likes of Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming, Brett Lee and Shane Warne. India lost the series 0-3, and captain Tendulkar was the highest scorer in the series, but Laxman’s 167 was a precursor to his quality performance against the Australians throughout.

Monkeygate: If Gavaskar’s dissent in the 1981 Test in Melbourne was a trailer, we had the entire film released in Sydney in 2008. It was the second Test match of a series that is considered one of the ugliest in the history of the India-Australia rivalry, with tempers clashing often. It was in this game that the infamous ‘Monkeygate’ controversy erupted between India’s Harbhajan Singh and the late Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds. A few verbal exchanges between the two cricketers while India were batting and Harbhajan put up a solid performance with Sachin Tendulkar turned into a racial controversy named ‘Monkeygate’. It was said that Singh had allegedly called Symonds “monkey” and the Australia cricketers had complained to the umpire about it. Singh said he was also insulted, and the episode had strained the two countries’ cricketing ties.

Kohli’s dream run in 2014-15: If Tendulkar had announced his arrival in the 1991-92 series, the 2014-15 series belonged to Virat Kohli. At 26, the ace batter found himself with the ‘burden’ of captaincy since Mahendra Dhoni had a thumb injury before the series started and retired after the third Test, but that didn’t stop the run-machine in him from scoring at will. The Indian batter hit 692 runs in four Tests with four centuries, the highest being 169 in Melbourne. He still finished second since Australia’s then-captain Steve Smith slammed 769 runs, but the 2014-15 tour of Australia stands out as one of the high peaks that Kohli scaled during his career.

Ajinkya Rahane’s captaincy: He did not have the appeal of Kohli or Rohit Sharma, but former India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane’s leadership from the front that saw his country scripting a comeback against Australia in the 2020-21 Test series remains historic. Regular captain Kohli returned home for personal reasons after the visitors were thrashed in the first match in Adelaide, where they got all out for a paltry 36 in the second innings. Rahane took up the reins and scored a match-winning 112 in the second Test in Melbourne, which helped India level the series. The next match was drawn, but India scripted a three-wicket victory in Brisbane in the fourth match to record their second successive Test series victory.

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