What to expect in the latest Border Gavaskar trophy

Cricket might have lost its excitement with Australia winning three successive world cups but the test series between australia and India are always competitive irrespective of where it happens.

The test series between Australia and India were always memorable, there was a tie match in 1986 series, in 1991-92 the world saw the mastery gem hundredsof Sachin Tendulkar and the lacklusture debut of shane warne. But after the series was named as Border Gavaskar Trophy the excitement grew and there was always something to rave about in every series. Lets look them one by one.

1. In the year 1996 there was a one off match, Tendulkar was the captain and India win 1-0 with Nayan Mongia the lone centurion hitting 154 in a matchup of taylor, waughs, sachin, azhar, dravid,ganguly.

2. In the year 1998 Tendulkar ripped shane warne and hit him all over the ground scoring more than 1000 runs in less than 2 months. India won the series 2-1 with australia winning the dead rubber test in bangalore. The best thing to me was mumbai beating australia in a 3 day match in the tour.

3. In the year 1999 India went to Australia and played pathetically and lost 3-0, Tendulkar was the lone warrior. He got dismissed few times by bowlers and most of the other times by the umpire. Ian chappell acknowledged the umpire's mistakes and rewarded him with the man of the series. He made a decision of not being the captain again which gave way to Ganguly' s era. The other notable aspect was a blistering 167 by VVS Lakshman in the sydney test which earned him the permanent berth in the test team.

4. In 2001 series Kumble got injured, and suddenly India were left with the likes of hirwani and other third stringers. Ganguly took the gamble of chosing harbhajan singh over hirwani. the first match went in the same fashion like 1999, tendulkar scored fifties in both the innings and india lost big. the first innings of the second match continues in the same way and suddenly when steve waugh asked india to follow on lakshman and dravid got that big partnership and won the match and India won the next match to clinch the series. Test Discard Mathew hayden came back to the team in this series and is still going strong. Harbhajan singh added fire to the series by claiming a hattrick and 32 wickets.

5. In the year 2003 India went to Australia and everyone expected the same story. Australia 3-0. The series started with a rain marred draw. In Adelaide, Australia scored 500 plus wiht ponting's double hundred. When Tendulkar was out, everything looked gloom and Lakshman and Dravid scripted another magnificient partnership. In melbourne sehwag ripped aussie attack and then India lost all the wickets in quick succession, aussie win 1-1. In sydney it was the turn of sachin and lakshman to script a victory but umpires and steve waugh helped to escape a draw. India gained a moral victory in the series.

6. In the year 2004 Australia came to india, this is one of the series I didnt like amongst all the recent ones. The two main reasons are india lost the home series to australia after a long time and more importantly the series being remembered for wrong reasons. Ganguly complained on nagpur pitch even before the match started. Sachin was injured and not able to play in the first two matches. Chennai test was drawn when it rained on final day with sehwag going on fire and india needing little over 200 runs. To top it off India won one match in a worst possible pich where spinners like mike clarke were bowling like muralitharan.

7. Year 2007 it was another moral victory for indians in the aussie soil, with no mcgrath and warne aussies didnt have answer to tendulkar and company. India almost drew the series except when umpires ruined the game in sydney. Its so unfortunate that the series is remembered for symonds and harbajan incident.

Its now 2008 and Australia is here, sachin might be playing his last test series against australia and so does VVS Lakshman and Dravid. And so does kumble and maybe harbhajan. I guess ganguly might have already played if he is not picked for this series. Australia is without warne or macgill and so their spin cordon looks bare. It might either be good or bad, remember mendis. Will aussie magic succeed or the big three(minus ganguly) has something left over in their sleeves to pull off another series victory.

Am not sure who is going to win the series but am sure that there is going to be lot of excitement. If aussies lose they will blame on the pitches, if india lose then that maybe the end of the senior batsmen. I will be more glued to the television to not miss any excitement.