The willow game’s rivalries, marinated in history, angst, stunning performances, and seasoned with perhaps a touch of geopolitics, have always stirred interest in cricket’s ardent devotees. Straight up is the Ashes, pitting the mother country England against a former colony Australia, while both remain tied together with the threads of the erstwhile Commonwealth Empire.
Then we get the feverish high-pitched notes of India and Pakistan, neighbours split by the Radcliffe Line and a seemingly eternal animosity yet fused by a shared history, cuisine, language and pop-culture references. This is a sport that comes with excessive baggage even before the players have stepped onto the turf.
In this cauldron of emotions, throw in India and Australia, and you get a rivalry, at least in recent times, second to none. This is cricket at its best, with stars on either side striving hard, doing the impossible, and playing a game that defines their legacy. If in the 1980s and during a part of the 1990s, players burnished their credentials through performances against the mighty West Indies, Australia now serves as the yardstick that separates the men from the boys. Equally, a tour of India is deemed a difficult proposition even if New Zealand proved otherwise with its recent 3-0 sweep in the Tests.
Sachin Tendulkar has 100 international tons, an artificial construct blending Tests and ODIs, but whatever the semantics, his 114 at Perth’s WACA in 1992 is still considered his best outing. V.V.S. Laxman’s 281 at Eden Gardens in 2001, against flint-eyed Steve Waugh and his men, is perhaps the greatest knock ever played by an Indian in Tests.
That Houdini Act by Sourav Ganguly’s men in delirious Kolkata, wherein a first-innings deficit and a follow-on were tided past to register a miraculous victory, turbo-charged the India-Australia rivalry.
It added the weight of expectations and extreme spice, two ingredients that even the present generation of cricketers strictly adhere to while adding fresh chapters of intrigue and excitement.
While India embarks on the latest five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under, there are hopes about a stirring new tale being gifted to eager fans, be it the ones in Australia or those in India, bleary-eyed after waking up early to catch the action on television.
From the vault: Ravi Shastri is another thread that binds India and Australia. During the 1991-92 tour of Australia that India lost 0-4, Shastri scored a double ton in Sydney while also keeping a sharp eye on a young Sachin Tendulkar. | Photo Credit: The Hindu Photo Library
However, in the past, the immediate presumption was that India would tour Australia and lose to the blitz of pace, while at home, it would quell the opposition with spin and guile. Part of this Nostradamus syndrome was true, but there have always been surprises, and that is the charm of these two squads, with a long evolution resting on past champions.
In the 1980-81 tour of Australia, India staged the ‘Miracle of Melbourne’. Trailing 0-1 after two Tests, it seemed as if the script would only get worse as despite Gundappa Viswanath’s superb 114, India watched Australia ride high on Allan Border’s 124 and gain a 182-run first-innings lead. Sunil Gavaskar’s men then posted 324 in the second dig, setting a meagre 143-run target. All seemed lost, but when Viswanath told an injured Kapil Dev that India had never lost when the former scored a ton, the latter was charged up.
Kapil’s five-for, with Karsan Ghavri and Dilip Doshi lending support, dismantled the Aussies. India won by 59 runs, and the series was levelled. In the same tour, Sandeep Patil scored a blistering 174 in the second Test at Adelaide. This was an era of slow living and an absence of raucous social media, and it is understandable that the 1980-81 tour is often forgotten while Waugh’s failed mission to conquer the Last Frontier in 2001 is regarded as the starting point of a storied rivalry.
Ravi Shastri, a superb all-rounder and a commentator in love with tracer bullets, remains another thread that binds India and Australia. As a player, he won the Champion of Champions title during the 1985 World Championship in Australia, which India won after defeating Pakistan in the final.
Later in the 1991-92 tour that India lost 0-4, he scored a double ton in Sydney while also keeping a sharp eye on a young Tendulkar. But Shastri wasn’t done yet, and as a coach, he shepherded the Indians to defining series triumphs in the 2018-19 and 2020-21 tours of Australia.
The 2020-21 win was epochal as India was considered a team of the walking-wounded, but everyone Shastri blooded as a player became a star. With most of its leading players missing, India still turned up with a touch of steel at Brisbane’s Gabba for the fourth and final Test with the series on the line at 1-1.
Be it T. Natarajan or Washington Sundar, Shubman Gill or Shardul Thakur, India had its heroes, and with a calm Ajinkya Rahane at the helm, that 2021 January was tipped to turn legendary. It did as Rishabh Pant hammered an unbeaten 89 in a tough chase, and India won by three wickets to claim the series at 2-1. Be it Virat Kohli or Rahane, Shastri drew the best from his captains.
The Mumbaikar with an innate Aussie spirit in his demeanour worked his magic and remains the link between Indian cricket of the past and the present. It is a continuity he still fosters as a commentator.
Fightback for the ages: In January 2021, Rishabh Pant’s brilliant 89 piloted India’s stunning run-chase, handing Australia its first defeat at the Gabba since 1988. India won the Border-Gavaskar series 2-1. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Just as Rohit Sharma (he will miss the first Test in Perth) leads India in the current tour with his fellow late-30s stars in Kohli, R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, a sense of an ending looms large. Still with vice-captain and spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, and talent like Gill (currently injured), Pant and Yashasvi Jaiswal, under his charge, Rohit is looking at perpetuating India’s recent dominance against the Aussies. A threat that Pat Cummins and his men want to counter in their backyard with the likes of Usman Khwaja, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon, itching to reveal their best.
England may be the old enemy, but for these Aussies, India is a clear and present danger. A rivalry awaits its fresh installment, and this is box-office gold.
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