Currently, the most talked about thing in the world of cricket is the Border Gavaskar Trophy i.e. BGT. This 5-match series will begin on November 22 in Perth, Australia. Australia’s number 1 Test team and India’s number 2 face off.
Although the two teams have been facing each other in Test cricket since 1947, in 1996, this match was given the name Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Know further in the story what was the reason for the name change of this series, what has been the trend of BGT so far and what story tells about the performance of both teams so far…..
Why was the name retained only after Border-Gavaskar?
India and Australia could have played the series under the names Sachin-Warne, Ponting-Ganguly or Kapil-Waugh, but when the name of the series was changed in 1996, the names Allan Border d’ Australia and Sunil Gavaskar from India were found. to be the most powerful. Of around 2,000 players who had played in the Test up to that time, both were batsmen who had over 10,000 Test runs to their name. Due to this, the India-Australia Test series was named the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is named after Australian Allan Border (left) and Indian Sunil Gavaskar (right).
Were there no Tests between India and Australia before 1996?
Of course, both teams have been playing test matches against each other since 1947. After gaining independence from the British, the Indian team’s first overseas tour was to Australia. In 1996, the 50th year of cricket between the two teams began, and to make it memorable, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Cricket Australia (CA) decided to name the series BGT.
Who won the first BGT? BGT started in 1996. For the first time, a single test match for this trophy was held in Delhi. India won by 7 wickets under the captaincy of Sachin Tendulkar. Indian batsman Nayan Mongia, who scored 152 runs, was the player of the match. Since then, 16 BGTs have been contested between the two teams. 10 were won by India and 5 by Australia. In 2003-2004, a series was also drawn 1-1.
9 BGTs were played in India, in which India won 8 times. Australia has won once. BGT has been staged 7 times in Australia. Australia has won 4 times in this field. India have won twice and the series has been drawn once. For Australia, winning the BGT has become a matter of self-respect as the team has failed to win the series even once since 2014. While India has won 4 series in a row.
Both won 6-6 Tests at each other’s home. So far, 56 Tests have been played between India and Australia in BGT. There were 29 Tests held in India, Team India won 18 and Australia won 6. 5 Tests were drawn. Of the 27 Tests played in Australia, the home team has won 14 and India has won only 6. 7 Tests have been drawn.
India stopped Australia’s victory chariot twice. India won the first BGT in 1996. For the second time, BGT was also hosted in India in 1998. This time the Indian team won 2-1. After two consecutive series defeats, the third BGT took place in Australia in 1999-2000. This time, the Kangaroos wiped out the Indian team 3-0.
Then, under the leadership of Steve Waugh, the Australian team became the strongest team in the world. Australia have won 15 consecutive Tests against different teams. In 2001, Steve Waugh’s team came to India to participate in the fourth BGT. Australia won the first Test in Mumbai. It was the Kangaroos’ 16th consecutive victory in Test cricket. It was thought that Steve Waugh’s team would win the series easily this time too, but under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, the Indian team fought back and won the next two matches and won the series.
After that, again in 2007-08, Australia won 16 consecutive test matches under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting. This time too, India ended their winning streak.
Started to break the pride by entering Australia, in 2018, Team India went even further. Under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, the team beat Australia for the first Test series in the history of home cricket. This was the first Test series victory in Australia by an Asian team.
Although Australia were then said to be weak, the team’s two great batsmen, Steve Smith and David Warner, were not in the team.
India beat Australia 2-1 at home for the second consecutive time in 2021. This time, the Australian team was in full strength and the Indian team was playing with young players and stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. India won the final match of the series at the Gabba Stadium in Brisbane, where Australia had not lost since 1988.
If a champion team like Australia loses two consecutive Test series at home, it is bound to become high-profile. The posters of Kohli and Team India, which are constantly published in Australian newspapers, also say the same thing.
Australian newspaper ‘The West Australian’ placed Kohli’s training photo on its cover page. The title of the newspaper was “The Return of the King”.
Is BGT bigger than Ashes?
BGT is not as old as the Ashes series between Australia and England, but in recent years it has become bigger and more combative than the Ashes. The Ashes began in 1882, but BGT won the title of the toughest Test series in 29 years.
England have only managed to beat Australia in a home Test series once in the last 35 years. While India has broken Australia’s self-esteem by doing this twice in the last six years. Therefore, it is natural that BGT is bigger than Ashes. Since 2000, South Africa are the only team to win 3 consecutive Test series in Australia. India now has a chance to achieve this record in its name.
Best BGT Players and Captains
Sachin, the only batsman to score 3,000 runs, India’s Sachin Tendulkar scored the highest number of 3,262 runs in the Border Gavaskar Trophy. He is the only player to have scored more than 3,000 points in BGT. Australia’s Ricky Ponting leads with 2,555 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara has the highest number of 2,033 runs among active players. Sachin has scored maximum 9 centuries in BGT, after him Virat Kohli, Australian Ricky Ponting and Steve Smith have 8 centuries each.
Kohli can break Sachin’s record in Australia Even in Australia, Sachin is India’s top scorer in BGT. He has 1,809 runs to his name in 38 innings with the help of 6 centuries. Kohli can now leave Sachin behind, for this he will have to score 458 runs in 5 Tests. After scoring 2 centuries, he will score more centuries than Sachin in BGT.
This time, in the battle between the top 2 bowlers in BGT, Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon took the maximum 116 wickets in BGT. Indian Ravichandran Ashwin is very close to him with 114 wickets. However, Ashwin has played 4 less Tests than Lion. The two players will face each other again in BGT.
Ashwin can overtake Kapil in Australia
The highest wicket-taker in Australia is India’s Kapil Dev, who has 51 wickets in 11 Tests. Ashwin is in third place with 39 wickets. He can reach the top by taking 13 wickets in 5 Tests. Ashwin can also come second to Anil Kumble with 11 wickets.
Kohli is Australia’s most successful Indian captain
Captain MS Dhoni, who led India to 27 Test victories, won a record 8 Tests in BGT. After him, Australians Michael Clarke and Steve Waugh won the tests 5-5. However, the most successful Indian captains in Australia are Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Both have won 2-2 Tests for the Indian team in the last 2 tours. While Dhoni failed to win a single Test in Australia. Starting from November 22, Australia will play the first Test under the captaincy of Pat Cummins and Indian team Jasprit Bumrah.
Graphics: Ankit Pathak.
The Indian team is touring Australia for the first BGT match on November 22. The team is scheduled to play a 5-Test series there, known as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). The first BGT match will be played in Perth from November 22. BGT has remained in the top trend over the past month. See Google Trends below…
Source: Google Trends ———————————————- ————— ————– ——–
Poll on Indian performance in Australia ahead of Border-Gavaskar Trophy
The innings played by Rahul Dravid in 2003 was awarded the title of the best Indian performance in Australia. ESPN, Star Sports and Disney Hot Star conducted a poll among cricket fans. In which voting was to take place on the best performance of Indians in Australia.