5 cricket legends who played their last Test against India
Sangakkara isn’t the only cricketer to have played his last Test against India “All good things come to an end one day“ and certainly in a cricketer’s life, the last day on the cricket field is probably the toughest of his entire career. To say goodbye to something you have done since you were so young is never easy, but as they say “players retire, but legends don’t”. With the retirement of Kumar Sangakkara, it feels like an era has come to an end. Most of the legends of the late 90’s and early part of the millennium have retired. The baton is now handed over to the likes of AB Devilliers, Virat Kohli, Joe Root and Steven Smith.Sangakkara chose India as his opposition to end his Test career but he is not the only high-profile cricketer to have done it so. We take a look at 5 legends who have played their farewell series against India.
#1 Steve Waugh (Australia) (2004)
India, led by Sourav Ganguly, went Down Under in 2003-04 to play a 4-match Test series against Australia which was followed by the traditional tri-nation One Day series (also featuring Zimbabwe). The series was a successful one for India as they managed to draw the Test series 1-1 and retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
This series will fondly be remembered as Steve Waugh’s farewell series. One of the greatest captains of all time, Waugh led the way and denied India a famous series win in the final Test at Sydney scoring a typically gritty half century on the last day of the match. Sachin Tendulkar scored his highest Test score of 241* in that game. He ended with 32 Test hundreds – 10th in the list of most centuries.
Waugh’s captaincy record was second to none; he led the Aussies to their second world cup triumph in 1999 at Lords & the Test team under him held the record of most consecutive Test wins (16) which ended in the historic game at Eden Gardens against India.
Under Steve Waugh, the Australian team played like the invincibles and won all over the world barring India which he regarded as his final frontier. One of the most respected cricketers of all time Waugh, post his retirement, established the ‘Steve Waugh Foundation aimed at children who have a disease, an illness or an affliction.