Border-Gavaskar Trophy

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The first ever cricket encounter between India and Australia was Australia's 1935–36 tour of India to play a series of four unofficial Tests. It was followed by the Australian Services cricket team which toured India in 1945–46. India's 1947–48 tour of Australia was its first after independence and included the first Test match and series between the two teams. The tours were irregularly scheduled with long gaps between them. Australia and India faced each other in the 2023 Test Championship final, the first Test since 1991–92 between the two teams where the Border–Gavaskar Trophy was not contested. Both India and Australia have a reputation of being difficult to beat at home. This is borne out by India winning 8 of the 9 BGT series held in India, and Australia winning (or drawing) 6 of the 8 BGT series held in Australia. The away series wins achieved by Australia (2004–05) and India (2018–19 and 2020–2021) have earned places in cricket folklore. Both teams have achieved similar number of Test match wins, and the trophy has also changed hands frequently. The competitiveness of the series is also reflected in that in both 2000–01 and 2007–08, it was India who ended Australia's streaks of 16 consecutive international Test wins. The 2000–01 series was labelled as the 'final frontier' for Australia by their captain Steve Waugh due to the difficulty of winning in India, and was closely fought by both sides.

In Their Own Story

The final Test of the 2000–01 series at Chennai saw Australia win the toss again and elect to bat. Matthew Hayden batted through the first day for an eventual total of 203, but the rest of the team contributed little to the total of 391. Harbhajan Singh was the destroyer, taking 7–133. India pushed to 501 on the back of Sachin Tendulkar's 126. Australia ended day four at 241/7, holding a precarious lead of 131 runs. Early on day five, Harbhajan ran through the Australian tail, taking 8–84 and his series tally to an astounding 32 wickets, leaving Australia all out for 264. India needed 155 runs to win with plenty of time. In 42 nail-biting overs, India steadily lost wickets, sinking to 135/7. They were left a tantalising 20 runs short as the match ended in a draw, preserving the series for India at 2–1.

Reader's Guide

The 1996–97 one-off Test was the first to be played under the Border–Gavaskar Trophy. This was also Sachin Tendulkar's first series as captain. The series consisted of just one match, played at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground in Delhi. The match, played from 10 to 14 October 1996, lasted just over four days, as India defeated Australia by seven wickets. Australia won the toss and elected to bat. But the Indian spinners, led by Anil Kumble, bowled them out for 182. Michael Slater top scored with 44 runs. In reply India scored 361, riding on Nayan Mongia's career best 152. In Australia's second innings, Steve Waugh scored 67 to get his team to 234. This left India with 56 to get in the fourth innings, which they did for the loss of three wickets. The 1997–98 series saw the Australian cricket team head over to India in February–March 1998 looking to get their first win in India since the 1969–70 tour. The first Test in Chennai saw Sachin Tendulkar scoring 155 from 191 balls to give India the win by 179 runs with Australia crumbling under the spin trio of Anil Kumble, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan as they got out on 168. The second Test at Kolkata saw another dominating performance from one of the Indian batsman with Mohammad Azharuddin 163 runs in India's only innings as India won the Test match by an innings and keeping the Border–Gavaskar Trophy in India. The final Test at Bangalore saw Sachin Tendulkar get his second hundred of the series. In response, Mark Waugh got the Australians first century of the series with 153*. Australia with the help of Mark Taylor century would chase down the 194 runs that India set for them as they got the consolation win from the series to end the series at 2–1 in favour of India. At the end of the tour, Shane Warne famously said that he would be having nightmares of Tendulkar hitting him for sixes and that only Bradman was in his class. The 1999–2000 series was the first edition of the Border–Gavaskar Trophy to be held in Australia. In the first Test at Adelaide, Australia got the win based from a first innings century from captain Steve Waugh while Damien Fleming's five wicket haul in the second innings saw the collapse of India who was bowled for 110 runs to give Australia a 285 run win. Australia would take home the second Test in Melbourne by 180 runs despite Tendulkar's century in the first innings. This Test also saw

Did You Know?

• The Border–Gavaskar Trophy is named after Allan Border of Australia and Sunil Gavaskar of India.
• India has won 10 of the 17 series, Australia 6, and one was drawn.
• As of January 2025, Australia holds the trophy after a 3–1 win in the 2024–25 series.
• Sachin Tendulkar is the most successful batsman in the trophy's history with 3262 runs.
• Nathan Lyon is the most successful bowler with 125 wickets.