Middle-order
Rahul Dravid
India’s middle-order batsmen at that stage was undoubtedly one of the greatest set of batsmen to have ever batted together at the same time. Coming in to bat at number 3 was ‘the wall’ Rahul Dravid.
In the early 2000s, India were struggling to find a recognized opening combination and it meant Dravid would often have to walk in early on in a Test match with a repairing job to do. The series at home was one of the rare instances of Dravid failing, only managing to register one half-century in 4 matches.
Sachin Tendulkar
Arguably the greatest batsman to have ever played the game, Sachin Tendulkar was one of the senior members of the squad by 2004. Having debuted at the age of 16, he had experienced the ups and downs of international cricket by this stage.
Sachin was injured for the first half of the series and returned for the Nagpur Test by which stage India were 1 – 0 down. His half-century in the final Test at Mumbai helped India register their only win.
Sourav Ganguly
Sourav Ganguly’s reputation had grown to lofty heights as he spearheaded a successful revolution of the Indian cricket team and was enjoying a relative period of stability at this point in time.
Like Sachin, he too missed a couple of Tests in the series. He scored 45 in the first innings of the Bangalore Test, a valiant effort but certainly not enough as India went down. He returned for the Mumbai Test and led the side to victory.
VVS Laxman
The Australians were sick of the sight of the stylish right-handed batsman VVS Laxman by the time they toured India in 2004. Demons of his incredible 281 against them in 2001 were still relatively fresh in the memory and the Aussies were keen to exorcise them.
Despite having a career average of close to 50 against the Aussies, Laxman too struggled in the first three Tests but was back to his best in the final Test and his 69 in the second innings was key to India’s win.
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