5 Instances when India were beaten at home in Tests since 2000

3. September-October 2004 – Australia breach the final frontier, finally!

In February-March of 2001, Steve Waugh-led Australia came to India riding high on an unprecedented 16-match winning streak. Steve Waugh knew a series win in India will be the final tick on his ‘Mission Dominance Bucket List’. So he labelled the tour as a ‘Final Frontier’.  And, there were good reasons for it.

India’s form at the time was not one of them, it was the scars of those tumultuous tours of the past. India, on the other hand, were still finding their feet under a new captain. Steve Waugh knew this was Australia’s best possible chance of cementing their place in the annals of folklore.

The belief got converted into confidence after the hammering that they gave India in the first Test in Mumbai. And then slowly into over-confidence (Well! Not really) when Waugh enforced the follow-on in the second Test at the Eden Gardens. But, then VVS Laxman-Rahul Dravid-Harbhajan Singh and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Cut to 2004. Steve Waugh has retired from the game after a fairytale swansong at the SCG in January of that year. Australia is still a mean-winning juggernaut with some fresh new faces and another tryst with history looms Test series in India.

Success without making statements

But this time there are no statements to the tune of it being the “final frontier” or words of that proportion. This Australian team is different. Naah, we are not talking about talent or the quality of the players, we are talking about the mindset and the change of approach with which they came to India in October 2004.

From the experiences of previous unsuccessful campaigns, the Australians had realized that they can’t beat India in India with spin. Their ace bowler, Shane Warne had been neutralized with great success in the past. So, what did they do? They went back to their traditional strength: fast bowling. The trio of Jason Gillespie (20 wickets at 16.15), Glenn McGrath (14 wickets at 25.42) and Michael Kasprowicz (9 wickets at 28.33) ultimately proved to be a cornerstone of that historic win. 

India’s batting sans Virender Sehwag was horribly out of sorts in the series. And it was compounded to disastrous effects courtesy the relentless of the Aussie pace attack. Both the Test matches (in Bangalore and Nagpur) were built on the likes of Damien Martyn, debutant Michael Clarke and Simon Katich piling up a mountain of runs, unleashing their fast bowlers to do the rest.

India ultimately got one back in the fourth Test in Mumbai on a snake pit masquerading as a 22-yard cricket pitch. They bowled the Australians out for 93. But, not before the Aussies had breached the final frontier.