Australia’s tour of India in 2001 is the most memorable tour for every Indian fan. After losing the first Test match badly by 10 wickets, India returned in the series from the second match courtesy of VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid‘s unbelievable partnership.
That match-winning partnership and effort boosted Team India’s confidence as they won the series by 2-1. In a recent interview, Sachin Tendulkar has also labelled this tour as the ‘best series of his life’.
Without any doubt, I have to say that was the best series of my life: Sachin Tendulkar.
The legendary cricketer talked about the series in an interview with ABC Australia, who were documenting Steve Waugh’s camerawork in India. He liked the way India came back in the series even though the start didn’t go their way. Sachin Tendulkar stated that they ‘started picking up in grand style’.
‘It was reported that Steve Waugh had said that this is his final frontier. So the series became even more important for Australians as well as us. In the first Test match, they beat us convincingly by 10 wickets. And from the second Test match, second innings onwards, we started picking up in grand style. And in the third Test match also, we won. We won the series 2-1. Without any doubt, I have to say that was the best series of my life,’ Sachin Tendulkar told ABC Australia.
In the second Test match, India was all out of 171 runs in their first innings, and Australia gave the follow on, but it was the biggest mistake of them. Although Sachin Tendulkar didn’t play a big role in this Test, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid set the stage on fire.
The former scored a double century while the latter amassed 180 runs to chase down 657 runs to take the game home. India also went on to win the third Test in Chennai to clinch the victory in the Border-Gavaskar trophy.