Whoever qualifies for the World Test Championship final to face South Africa at Lord’s in June – mathematically, it could be Sri Lanka – nobody seriously disputes that the two best Test teams in the world are Australia and India. Their routes to the top have been strikingly different.
Since they took part in the first ever Test match, against England at the MCG in 1877, Australia have usually been in the top two, with occasional absences, in the mid-1950s, the mid-1980s and parts of the 2010s. India made her Test debut against England at Lord’s in 1932. Like most “new” Test countries, they found the early years a struggle, mitigated by occasional wins at home. Things started to change under Ajit Wadekar in the 1970s. They beat an underwhelming West Indies in the Caribbean in 1970-71, then Ray Illingworth’s Ashes winners, in England, in 1971, and repeating the feat in India in 1972-73: when the tourists were led by Tony Lewis. 1983 saw Kapil Dev’s side win the World Cup at Lord’s. This was a seismic event in cricket history but it had no immediate impact on India’s Test performances; the West Indies, vanquished at Lord’s, won the Test series that followed it in India 4-1.
Australia and India first played each other in 1947-48. It was Don Bradman’s penultimate series, played in Australia, and the hosts won 4-0; the second Test, at Sydney was ruined by rain. Up to and including the 1991-92 series in Australia, the countries had played each other fifty times, Australia winning 24 games and India eight; one, famously, was tied, and the rest drawn. Of India’s eight wins, three were in Australia; two of those were in 1977-78 when Australia’s best players were with Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket; Bishen Bedi took 33 wickets for India. The third came at the MCG in 1980-81, the match where India’s captain, Sunil Gavaskar, was so dissatisfied with the umpiring decision that terminated his innings that he tried to persuade his opening partner Chetan Chauhan to leave the field with him. The 1991-92 series, in Australia, was won by the hosts four-nil, but the series was a harbinger of greatness to come for both sides : Shane Warne made his debut for Australia, and an eighteen year old Sachin Tendulkar made centuries at Sydney – where he became the youngest player to score a hundred in Australia – and Adelaide, two champions not just for the 1990s but for all time. That set a trend. Most of the unchallenged all-time greats of the world game who have emerged since then have played for Australia or India: Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Rahul Dravid, M S Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah.
1996-97 saw the inauguration of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a one-off Test in Delhi won by India. In the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as a whole, before the current series, there have been 56 matches: Australia have won twenty and India twenty-four (the World Test Championship of 2023, played at The Oval and won by Australia, is excluded). Nothing illustrates more clearly how the balance of power has shifted in Test cricket. Since 2008-09 the figures are even more striking : 34 played, ten wins for Australia, 16 for India.
Away wins are the thing. Any side ought to be able to defend its honour at home. Australia have not won a series in England since 2001. Australia and India are both regarded as impregnable at home. That is what was so startling about New Zealand’ s recent three-nil win in India. Since being trounced by Andrew Strauss’ England in 2010-11, Australia have lost only two home series. Both were to India, to Kohli’s team in 2018-19, and to what was almost a reserve team under Ajinkya Rahane in 2020-21, a truly remarkable series., in which India were bowled out for 36 in the first Test but went on to win the series with an amazing run chase at Fortress ‘Gabba. Meanwhile, Australia have played three series in India from and including 2012-13, and lost each one.
Along the way there have been some significant moments. One came way back in 2000-01. Australia, under Steve Waugh, were unquestionably the strongest side in the world and were on an unbroken run of sixteen wins, the sixteenth coming in the first Test at Mumbai. They seemed to be en route for a seventeenth at Kolkata when India were asked to follow on 274 runs behind. But Dravid (180 not out) and VVS Laxman (281) had other ideas, putting on 376 for the fifth wicket. Australia were then bowled out for 212, losing by 171 runs. It was only the third time in history that a side had won after following on. Harbhajan Singh, often a thorn in Australia’s side, took six for 73. In the third and final Test at Chennai, Harbhajan took fifteen wickets in the match as India won by two wickets. Ponting played five innings in the series, was dismissed by Harbhajan five times and scored a total of 17 runs.
There was another epic series in Australia in 2003-04, a one- all draw, a contest master-minded by two strong-minded captains, Steve Waugh and Sourav Ganguly. Sambit Bal in Wisden said India announced themselves as a force in Test cricket in this series. Dravid and Laxman carried on where they had left off in Kolkata, averaging 123 and 82 respectively. But the most extraordinary innings played for India was Tendulkar’s 241 not out in the final Test at Sydney, a game more or less hijacked to mark Waugh’s farewell to Test cricket. Tendulkar had not reached fifty in the series. He was demonstrably in poor form – 188 of his runs came on the leg side. He just ground on to reach his highest first-class score. Ponting, meanwhile, scored double centuries in both Australia’s defeat in Adelaide – where he also made his first duck in 50 Test innings. Anil Kumble headed India’s bowling averages with 24 wickets at 28; Jason Gillespie headed Australia’s with ten at 37.
Ponting was in charge at home in 2007-08when Australia won a tense series two-one.Their victory in the second Test at Sydney saw them equal their own record of sixteen consecutive wins. The game was one of exceptional tensions, exemplified by the conclusion, victory being gained with nine minutes to spare, part-time spinner Michael Clarke taking the last three wickets in five balls. The match had a number of memorable features, including a magnificent 154 not out by Tendulkar. But most of the outstanding features were negative. There were some appallingly bad umpiring decisions, and ugly behaviour from both sides. Among the more memorable after effects were Indian captain Kumble’s comparison with Bodyline, Peter Roebuck’s call for Ponting to be sacked, and the Indian board’s curious assertion that it was impossible for Indians to be racist. One thing was demonstrably clear : India, already the game’s financial powerhouse, were not going to be pushed around. (As in 2001, Australia were once again prevented from taking their winning run further.)
India won the next two series, in India, then went to Australia in 2011-12 and lost four-nil. Clarke, now captain, made over 600 runs including a dazzling 329 not out at Sydney. Six Australians made centuries in the series; one Indian did – 23-year-old Kohl in the final Test at Adelaide.
India repaid the compliment in the next series, winning four-nil at home in 2012-13; this was the series when a number of Australian players were sent home for not doing their homework; R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shared 53 wickets for India. India were back in Australia in 2014-15, losing a four-Test series two-nil. The series saw record-breaking levels of run-scoring, especially by the two captains. Smith scored 769 runs at 128.16; Kohli, who took over from Dhoni in the course of the series, scored 692 at 86.50. Both men scored four centuries. The team’s respective leading wicket takers were off-spinners Nathan Lyon and Ashwin, together with Ishant Sharma.
There have been four series since then, two in India and two in. Australia, and India have won all of them.
Not surprisingly the cricket world has been hugely looking forward to the current series. India’s startling home defeat to New Zealand in October seemed to make Australia favourites. And then there was Perth.
There has been some wonderful Test cricket all over the world since COVID (Isn’t everything now pre of post COVID?) But this game (and the fourth Test at Melbourne, until India’s undignified collapse on the final afternoon) was utterly enthralling from beginning to end, from India’s apparently humiliating dismissal for 150 on the first day, to their overwhelming victory on the fourth
There were two critical, almost emblematic, phases of this game that paved the way for India’s success. The first was Bumrah’s unplayable spell on the first evening. He lays down challenges which the best batters in the world can have nightmares about. The second was the opening partnership of 201 in India’s second innings between Yashasvi Jaiswal (161)and K F Rahul (77). They took 63 overs; this was “ proper” Test match batting. Jaiswal, whose backstory is extraordinary, is already a huge name in the IPL. He is poised to succeed Kohli as cricket’s global superstar. Rahul bats everywhere; he was opening because Rohit Sharma was on paternity leave. He made his Test debut in that high-scoring 2014-15 series and made a century in his second Test. He has a career average of 34 but looked the most technically sound batter in the game. Meanwhile, Kohli made a hundred and Smith made a first ball duck.
It came as no surprise that Australia bounced back strongly to win the pink ball game in Adelaide. Their pace attack – Cummins, Mitchell Starc – each of whom took six wickets in an innings – and Scott Boland, replacing the injured Josh Hazlewood – is still a fantastic combination.
Both sides are in a similar stage. Some players seem almost over the hill – at 38 Usman Khawaja seems very old for an Australian Test player. Others – Nitish Kumar Reddy, Sam Konstas, are right at the start of what could be glittering careers. Smith and Cummins, two of the all-time greats are perhaps providing the difference.
Nobody would confidently predict the outcome of this series. These are two teams that are wonderful to watch and the series merits comparison with the epic 1960-61 series between Australia and West indies. The only certain thing at the moment is that the fate of the Border – Gavaskar Trophy is still unclear: India will retain it if they win at Sydney. But the much-considered momentum seems to be with Australia.
