Big expectations from India v Australia
Australia's Test battle against India is the premier contest in the modern game and their upcoming two-Test series is likely to be a closely-fought affair
Nitin Sundar
25-Feb-2013
Australia's Test battle against India is the premier contest in the modern game and their upcoming two-Test series is likely to be a closely-fought affair. Dileep Premachandran looks back at Australia's most recent tours to India, in his column in the National.
By the next time he played there, in 2001, Steve Waugh was such a hero that the applause he received for his century made the Indian players stare at each other quizzically. By the third evening, Waugh’s all-conquering side, chasing a 17th successive Test win, were well on course, still 20 runs ahead with just six Indian wickets to take.
By the next afternoon, we were all going through the record-books and contemplating the unthinkable. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid didn’t just bat through the day; they broke Australia’s spirit.
The mood of the crowd too had changed. Subdued in the face of imminent defeat in the morning, there were as loud as could be by afternoon. By the time Laxman went past Sunil Gavaskar’s 236 – then the highest score by an Indian in Tests – the crescendo was such that you could not hear the person next to you speak.
Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo