5 greatest performers in Border-Gavaskar trophy

The Australia versus India Test series was renamed as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in 1996 in honour of two legends, namely Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar who played for Australia and India respectively. It is one of the most keenly contested Test series in International cricket. This series has seen the two teams form one of the biggest rivalries in cricket over the last decade or so, given that India regularly challenged the might of the then world champions. In a high-octane series like this, often there are many players who bring their A game to the fore. However, there are a select few who have performed consistently over the course of various series and left their imprint on this high profile series. Let’s take a look at 5 such performers:

#5 Rahul Dravid

2143 runs at an average of 39.68 are not numbers that really merit a place in the list of top performers. However, in this case, we are looking beyond the numbers. We are looking at the impact that this man had and the significant role that he played each time the Indians won against the mighty Aussies. Be it the famous Kolkata Test of 2001 or Adelaide 2003 or even Perth 2008 for that matter, the Wall always played his part when Team India tamed the Kangaroos.

He was adjudged the Man of the Series in the 2003-04 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series where he scored 619 runs at a superhuman average of 123.80. In both innings of the Adelaide Test, he countered the Australian bowlers effectively and helped Indian win a Test in Australia after 22 long years. In the Mumbai Test of 2004 where India edged out Australia by 14 runs, he was the captain of the Indian team. He shuffled his bowlers really well as the Aussies fell like 9 pins in pursuit of an easy target.

Though India’s victory at Perth in 2008 is often remembered for the heroics of Ishant Sharma and the other Indian pacers, Jammy played a significant role in that victory as well. It was his innings of 93 and crucial partnership of 139 for the 3rd wicket with Sachin Tendulkar that enabled India to post a respectable total of 330.

Given that the Indians were 2-0 down at that juncture, the Aussie bowlers had their tails up in conditions that were tailor-made for bowling. However, Dravid countered the pace and the bounce of the wicket with relative ease and narrowly missed out on a well-deserved century.

The below video is an account of the brilliant innings that the former India captain played at Perth: