The most talked about topic in the cricket world right now is the Border Gavaskar Trophy or BGT. This 5-match series is starting on 22 November in Perth, Australia. The number-1 Test team Australia and number-2 India are facing each other.
Although both the teams have been playing against each other in Test cricket since 1947, in 1996 this test match series got the name of Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Know further in the story what was the reason for changing the name of this series, what has been the trend of BGT till now and what story does the performance of both the teams tell so far…..
Why was it named after Border-Gavaskar?
India and Australia could have played the series under the names of Sachin-Warne, Ponting-Ganguly, or Kapil-Waugh, but when the name of the series was changed in 1996, the names of Alan Border from Australia and Sunil Gavaskar from India were found to be the strongest. Out of the nearly 2 thousand players who had played Tests till that time, these two were the only batsmen who had more than 10 thousand Test runs to their name. For this reason, the India-Australia Test series was named the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Were there no Test matches between India and Australia before 1996?
Of course, there were, both teams have been playing Test matches since 1947. After gaining independence from the British, the first foreign tour of the Indian team was to Australia. In 1996, the 50th year of cricket was starting between the two teams, to make it memorable, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Cricket Australia (CA) decided to name the series Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Who won the first BGT?
Border-Gavaskar Trophy started in 1996. For the first time, only one test match was played in Delhi under this trophy. India won by 7 wickets under the captaincy of Sachin Tendulkar. India’s wicketkeeper-batsman Nayan Mongia, who scored 152 runs, was the player of the match. Since then, 16 BGTs have been played between the two teams. India won 10 and Australia won 5. In 2003-04, a series was also drawn 1-1.
9 BGTs were played in India, out of which India won 8 times. Australia won once. 7 times BGT was organized in Australia. Australia won 4 times. India won 2 times and the series was drawn once. Winning BGT has become a matter of self-respect for Australia because the team has not been able to win a series even once since 2014. Whereas India has won 4 consecutive series.
Both won 6-6 Tests in each other’s home. 56 Tests have been played between India and Australia in BGT so far. 29 Tests were played in India, the Indian team won 18 and Australia won 6. 5 Tests were drawn. 27 Tests were played in Australia, the home team won 14 and India won 6. 7 Tests were drawn.
India stopped Australia’s victory chariot twice.
India won the first BGT in 1996. The second time BGT was also organized in India in 1998. This time Team India won 2-1. After losing 2 consecutive series, the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy was organized in Australia in 1999-2000. This time the Kangaroos clean swept the Indian team 3-0.
Then under the captaincy of Steve Waugh, the Australian team became the strongest team in the world. Australia 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. This was the Kangaroos’ 16th consecutive victory in Test cricket. It was believed that Steve Waugh’s team would easily win the series this time too, but the Indian team under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly retaliated and won the series by winning the next two matches.
After this, once again in 2007-08, Australia won 16 consecutive Test matches under the captaincy of Ricky Ponting. This time too, their continuous winning streak was broken by India.
Started breaking the pride by entering Australia
In 2018, Team India went one step further. Under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, the team defeated Australia in the first Test series in cricket history in its own home. This was the first Test series win of any Asian team in Australia.
However, it was said then that Australia was weak, the team’s 2 big batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner were not part of the squad.
India defeated Australia 2-1 in its home for the second consecutive time in 2021. This time the Australian team was at full strength and the Indian team was playing with young players and stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane. India won the last match of the series at the Gaba Stadium in Brisbane, where Australia had not lost since 1988.
If a champion team like Australia loses 2 consecutive Test series to anyone in its home, then it is bound to be hyped. The posters of Kohli and Team India being continuously printed in Australian newspapers are also telling the same thing.
Sachin is the only batsman to score 3000 runs
India’s Sachin Tendulkar has scored the most runs (3,262) in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He is the only player to score more than 3,000 runs in BGT. Ricky Ponting from Australia is on top with 2,555 runs. Among the active players, Cheteshwar Pujara has the most runs (2,033). Sachin has also scored the most number of 9 centuries in BGT, followed by Virat Kohli, Australia’s Ricky Ponting, and Steve Smith with 8 centuries each.
This time the battle is between the top 2 bowlers of BGT
Australia’s off-spinner Nathan Lyon has taken the most 116 wickets in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India’s Ravichandran Ashwin is very close to him with 114 wickets. However, Ashwin has played 4 Tests less than Lyon. Both players will once again face each other in BGT.
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