Carrying the ‘poor travellers’ tag with them, the Indian team of the 1990s had to go through several embarrassing tours overseas, but they managed to create a fortress at home over the next decade and half, hardly giving an inch to the opposition. Yet, three of their five biggest Test defeats have come at home, all in the last two decades. It highlights the tendency of the team to lose its guard and fall flat on its face, missing the plot either to complacency or lack of application.
Their 333-run defeat to Australia found place in the following list of biggest defeats for them in Test cricket:
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South Africa (329 runs), Kolkata 1996
After a convincing 64-run win in the first Test at Motera in 1996, the Indian team flew to Kolkata (Calcutta then) to try and notch up another win and clinch the series before the final Test at Kanpur. Their plans went for a total spin when a poor batting display in the final innings saw them lose by a massive margin of 329 runs, their biggest defeat in terms of runs at that time.
To start with, Andrew Hudson and Gary Kirsten, with a strong opening foundation, laid the platform for a huge first innings total. In reply, the Indian team didn’t fare badly, yet, despite a century from captain Azharuddin, and a fighting 88 from Kumble, fell more than a 100 runs short. Kirsten, now with Darryl Cullinan for company, compiled another big century, giving the hosts a massive 467 runs to play for. The Indians crumbled, falling miserably short. Yet, they came back in style and clinched the series at Kanpur.
Australia (333 runs), Pune 2017
Left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe, with all but four Tests under his belt, managed to unearth such demons from the Pune pitch that established players like Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were left clueless. In all, he managed to pick up twelve wickets, bungling the hosts for 100-run totals, handing Kohli his first loss at home as Test captain.
Accompanied by Nathan Lyon, O’Keefe jagged and turned the ball around, sending the batsmen into a tizzy in both innings. Virat Kohli’s dismissal, leaving a delivery that held its line to rattle the stumps, epitomised India’s failed approach to counter spin.
Loaded with Renshaw and Starc’s knocks in the first innings, and Steve Smith’s century in the second, the Australians managed to put enough runs on board for their spinners to work on. Eventually, India fell 333 runs short.
Australia (337 runs), Melbourne 2007
The acrimonious tour of 2007-08 for India might be fresh in fans’ memories for completely different reasons, but few would also have forgotten the embarrassing defeat at MCG in the Boxing Day Test, one of Australia’s two wins in the four-match series.
The Indian batting just didn’t click in the opening Test, part of the problem being the makeshift opening pair of Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid. The tourists couldn’t get past 200 in either of the innings, troubled by the trio of Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark.
The Aussie batsmen, riding on the form of openers Phil Jacques and Matthew Hayden, had enough runs to test the Indian batsmen with their incisive pace attack. The Indian batsmen, however, were found wanting.
Pakistan (341 runs), Karachi 2006
Pakistan were 39-6. Irfan Pathan had taken a hat-trick to send the top three batsmen for nought, and there seemed to be no way out of jail for them. But what started with a rearguard effort from Kamran Akmal turned into something big: Pakistan’s then biggest win in Tests.
Replying to Pakistan’s first innings score of 245, the Indian team put up a weak total, troubled primarily by Mohammad Asif and Abdul Razzaq. The Pakistan batsman capitalised in the second innings, scoring a massive 599 spearheaded by Faisal Iqbal’s century. A 607-run target was always going to be too much, and despite Yuvraj Singh’s 122-run knock, the team fell way short, their biggest defeat away from home.
Australia (342 runs) , Nagpur 2004
Australia finally managed to conquer Steve Waugh’s ‘final frontier’, sending India and their home reputation for a toss with a crushing 342 run victory in the Nagpur Test. A big partnership between Michael Clarke and Damien Martyn first helped them put up a decent first innings score, then Jason Gillespie’s nagging pace accounted for the batsmen in both innings.
There was hardly any fight by the Indians in either of the side, barring fighting knocks from Mohammad Kaif and Virender Sehwag. The second Australian innings, peppered with half centuries from the middle order, handed India a 543 run target. They managed just 200. A consolation win at Mumbai is all they could manage, but the series was lost.
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