Anil Kumble – 8-141 & 4-138 in Sydney, 2004

Anil Kumble’s match-winning ability was unquestionable at home but he hadn’t earned a similar reputation overseas. This Australia tour was an opportunity to improve that aspect of his game. Having started the tour on the bench, he replaced an injured Harbhajan Singh in the second Test. By the time the final match began at the SCG, with the series level 1-1, Kumble had bowled the most overs by an Indian bowler and taken a five-for in the famous win in Adelaide.

In Sydney, after India posted 705 in the first innings, Kumble bowled 46.5 overs to pick up 8 for 141, his second-best haul after his perfect ten, and give India a lead of 231, which they extended to 442 before declaring late on the fourth day.

Bowling another 42 overs in Australia’s second innings, Kumble went on to take 4 for 138 - his match-haul of 12 was his best overseas - but India were only able to take six wickets in total, falling agonisingly short of what would have been their maiden series win down under.

Virat Kohli – 123
in Perth, 2018

Virat Kohli was already one of India’s greatest batters before 2018. He stepped up to an even more rarefied level that year, scoring 1322 runs at an average of 55.08 over 24 innings, of which 22 were played in South Africa, England and Australia.

Conditions in all three tours were hard on batters, but the more challenging they became, the more Kohli seemed to relish them. When he walked in to bat in Perth, everything must have looked familiar. India had lost the toss and conceded a bigger total than they should have, bowling well but not without spells of releasing pressure. Then they lost early wickets.

In similar circumstances, Kohli had scored 153 at Centurion and 149 at Edgbaston. Now, from 8 for 2, he proceeded to play an even better innings. This was a proper trampoline of a pitch, and Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were routinely getting the ball to rear throat-high from just back of a length. Kohli negotiated the vertical threat expertly, though not without suffering blows to his arm and ribs, but the standout feature of his innings was how well he dealt with Australia’s attempts to sucker him with full balls after pushing him back.

Almost every time there was an opportunity to drive, he did so pristinely, down the ground or through the covers with a decisive front-foot stride. A 20th century version of this list would have undoubtedly contained Sachin Tendulkar’s 114 in Perth in 1992. Kohli’s innings came at Perth Stadium and not the WACA, and just as the new ground seamlessly carried forward the old one’s legacy of pace and bounce, a new master had carried forward an old master’s legacy.

Laxman’s Sydney solo vs
Rahane’s Melbourne revival

VVS Laxman - 167 in Sydney, 2000

After heavy defeats in Adelaide and Melbourne, India were running on fumes by the time the final Test began at the SCG. VVS Laxman wasn’t meant to open in Australia but the lack of viable options meant he had to perform a role he didn’t particularly enjoy.

Up until Sydney, Sachin Tendulkar was the only Indian batter to have shown fight on the tour, but after India capitulated once again in the first innings, Laxman let rip. A blow to the helmet from Glenn McGrath was the trigger that made him play like he had nothing to lose.

A maiden Test hundred off just 114 balls, full of gloriously languid drives and flicks that rivalled the watching Mark Waugh’s repertoire, grew into an innings of 167 with 27 boundaries. As he walked off the field to applause from the Australians on the field and in the stands, it was just the start of Laxman’s very, very special love affair with Australia.

Ajinkya Rahane – 112
in Melbourne, 2020

India would come to wear 36 all out like a badge, but imagine the scene of the immediate aftermath. They had collapsed to their lowest-ever total and let a promising position slip in the first Test of a tour already complicated by Covid-19 restrictions and injuries to key players. Now their captain Virat Kohli was going home too on paternal leave. In his place, India would be led by Ajinkya Rahane, a man under a bit of pressure, having contributed significantly to Kohli’s first-innings run-out, one of the turning points in Adelaide.

India turned it around spectacularly at the MCG, and Rahane was a central figure. His captaincy was a key ingredient - he was part of a leadership group that decided India would strengthen their bowling rather than their batting in Kohli’s absence - but his most decisive contribution came with the bat.

After India had dismissed Australia for 195 on Boxing Day, Rahane walked in at 61 for 2, which quickly became 64 for 3. His technique was under question after a second-innings duck in Adelaide, but he showed immense trust in his methods while soaking up early pressure, scoring just four off his first 30 balls, before his confidence and rhythm began to shine through. The bowling and the conditions were never less than challenging, but a shot of startling crispness - none crisper than the square-cut off Pat Cummins that brought up his century - would ever so often interrupt long periods of soft-hands defence. With Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja building defiant partnerships with him, Rahane went on to score a series-turning 112 that helped India take a decisive 131-run lead in the first innings of a famous victory.