Remembering Kolkata 2001

Ten years ago in Kolkata, India completed perhaps the greatest comeback in Test cricket to beat Australia, after they had been struggling during the follow-on. LP Sahi spoke to the key players for the Telegraph.

Sourav Ganguly: That Test and series remains the highpoint of my innings as captain. Even if I hadn’t been the captain, I’d look back with so much pride ... We’d lost the first Test (in Mumbai) by ten wickets and everybody had written us off. That we’d been behind by 274 at the Eden only made our stock fall even more. But...

Harbhajan Singh on his most memorable wicket: That of Shane Warne, my hat-trick victim. After that, I got calls from the high and mighty. The then Prime Minister (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) sent me a very kind letter of appreciation, which has been framed and given pride of place at my house in Jalandhar. The phone never stopped ringing in the hotel room and my room-mate, (Ashish) Nehra, must have gone crazy.

VVS Laxman: I'd batted well in the first innings and so was promoted to No .3 in the second. I was able to continue the good work, without thinking either of what had happened or what could happen. I was wholly in the present then, looking to play each ball on merit. I’ve always enjoyed batting with Rahul and, as it so happened, we batted through day four. Not many, perhaps, know that he’d been down with a viral attack in the lead-up to the Test.

Rahul Dravid: It gave us players a lot of confidence and gave the public confidence in us. The team got the time and space to become stronger and the public, too, gave us space and time to grow. The foundation (of a formidable team) was laid, but it’s not that we became brilliant overnight. The process, however, started at the Eden.