The Hindu : Front Page : Series evokes high expectations

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Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007
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Series evokes high expectations

Ram Mahesh

India’s quest to regain Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins tomorrow

Melbourne: India’s quest to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy begins at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday, with the expectations strung at a concert pitch. The Boxing Day Test, one of cricket’s grand traditions, is the first in a series of four eagerly awaited matches that will be contested across Australia over the next five weeks.

The tour offers Anil Kumble’s side the opportunity to become the first Indian team to win a Test series in Australia. Over the last four years, India has shed the ‘lions at home, lambs abroad’ tag, winning series in Pakistan, the West Indies and England. But, India will have its task cut out. Having won the last 14 Tests, Ricky Ponting’s champion side approaches the record of 16 consecutive victories set by Steve Waugh’s team. India, incidentally, had broken the sequence of successive wins in Kolkata in 2001 in a series which many experts rate as among the finest of all time.

Though India’s record in Australia — four wins and 20 defeats in 32 Tests — is not encouraging, the team has known success in recent battles. Of the last 11 Test matches, played in both countries between 2001 and 2004, the sides have won four each. India also remains one of only two teams, England the other, to have defeated Australia in a home Test since 2000.

“We are a good side,” said Sourav Ganguly, who led India into a drawn series (1-1) in Australia in 2003-04. “We are the only team in the world that has done well against Australia at home and away in the last five or six years. We all know they’re a good side but we also have the side to beat them.” The tour has a touch of poignancy, for, this is the last time Australian crowds will see the Golden Generation of Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.V.S. Laxman and Sourav Ganguly in action.

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