Image Credit- ESPN CricInfo.
Venue- County Ground, Chelmsford [July 13-15, 2007].
The Australians have regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy as they have won the 5 Match Test Series 3-1. After losing the first test at Perth, the Hosts made a strong comeback as they blew away the Visitors in Adelaide and dominated against them in the remaining 3 matches of the series. The Indians fell short in ever department and thus lost a Test Series in Australia after 10 long years. Since we have now failed to make it into the WTC Finals, so the questions are now being raised that why we failed. The answer to the same is that we didn't have a strong bowling line-up, and we were overdependent on Bumrah. Secondly, we didn't play much tour games to adapt ourselves in the Australian surroundings. Thirdly our star players missed domestic tournaments due to which they were short of practice, and it cost us on big time.
However, this was not the situation before as the cricketers of yesteryears not only played Ranji Trophy Games but also played a lot of Tour Games to adjust themselves in foreign conditions. The Legendary Sachin Tendulkar was one such cricketer who did everything to be game ready before such big tours. In the Year 2007, Indian Cricket Team toured England to play 3 Tests and 7 ODIs. In addition to that Indians were supposed to play an ODI against Ireland in Ireland, 3 ODIs against South Africa in Ireland and also 1 ODI against Scotland in Scotland. So, it was a very big tour. Interestingly it ended up as one of the most successful overseas tours as we won the ODIs against Ireland and Scotland. Furthermore, we also won the Series against South Africa 2-1. Unfortunately, we lost the 7 match ODI series against England 3-4 but were successful in winning the 3 Match Test Series 1-0 after 21 long years. So why were we successful back then? The answer to the same is proper practice and training. We played sufficient tour games due which we were game ready when the actual series started.
It is interesting to note that in one of the tour games against England Lions we were struggling as the Indian scorecard read 2/2 in response to Lion's 413. However, this is when we saw one of the finest knocks of the Great Sachin Tendulkar. The Little Master scored a magnificent 171 of just 236 deliveries (23 Boundaries and 1 Six) and took his team out of crisis. Furthermore, the elegance with which he batted that day made everyone go gaga. The shots he played were properly timed and placed. The God of Cricket was literally at his absolute best.
It is pertinent to note that it was only due to his monumental innings the Indians ended up posing 383 in their first innings. The Match eventually ended in a draw, but it did give us a lot of confidence as we went out and scripted history in the Pataudi Trophy.
In the month of June, we will be touring England for a 5 Match Test Series. Hence, one can only hope that the Indians will take a lesson from the past and will not repeat the same mistake which did they did in Australia.
To watch the innings of Sachin Tendulkar, Click Here.
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