Published: Dec 13, 2018, 09:57 AM (IST)
Edited: Dec 13, 2018, 09:57 AM (IST)
Having beaten Australia by 31 runs at Adelaide Oval, Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team can retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by winning the second Test in Perth starting Friday.
Victory over of Australia in Adelaide on Monday marked a rare achievement in 72 years of Indian cricket teams visiting Australia, and was the first time since December 2006 in South Africa that any Indian side began a tour of the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, Australia) countries by winning the first Test.
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The Border-Gavaskar Trophy came into existence in 1996 when Mark Taylor’s Australian team arrived in India for a one-off Test match in Delhi which India won in what was Sachin Tendulkar’s first Test as captain.
In 1998, Australia visited again and were beaten 2-1. In 1999, India toured Australia and were blanked 3-0 in an awful series from which the only silver lining was VVS Laxman’s 167 at the SCG.
Then came the epic 2000-01 series in which Sourav Ganguly’s team came back from defeat in Mumbai to win in Kolkata and Chennai, with Laxman’s epic 281 at Eden Gardens proving a turning point in Indian cricket history.
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In 2003, Ganguly’s team drew 1-1 in Australia during a series in which Rahul Dravid scripted a classic in Adelaide and at the end of which Steve Waugh retired. Less than a year later, Ricky Ponting’s team came to India and conquered the final frontier.
The acrimonious 2007-08 tour of Australia saw India win in Perth and threaten to fly back after the Monkeygate scandal broke in Sydney. The hosts won the series 2-1. In 2008, India beat Australia at home and then repeated the dosage in 2010.
When India returned to Australia in 2011-12 under MS Dhoni they were whitewashed 0-4, a scoreline that was repeated the other way around when they made the return trip in 2013. In 2014-15, Australia took back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 2-0 win at home.
In 2017, Kohli led India to a 2-1 win at home to get the trophy back.
