Hottest debates in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test matches
When the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a competition between the top two Test teams in the world, begins on February 9, cricket fans worldwide will be watching with bated breath.
The Indian squad, coached by Rohit Sharma, will be the pregame favourite, but Australia, with Pat Cummins at the helm, has been on a roll in the most extended format of late. This time, the visiting team is more seasoned and intends to put up a strong showing in the series.
Test cricket matches between India and Australia are typically more tense and hostile than those between these two countries. There have been numerous heated debates and controversies surrounding games between the two dominant teams in recent years.
This article examines three Border-Gavaskar Trophy matches in which tensions and hostilities between the two countries reached a boiling point.
1. Brain fade Incident, 2017
While batting on 28, Steve Smith was given out lbw in the second Test match of the 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The former Australian captain said he had a “brain fog” and looked to the locker room for a hint on whether to reconsider the dismissal.
The then-Indian captain, Virat Kohli, saw this and was furious; he immediately went to the umpires to report it. Nigel Llong immediately told Smith to return to the locker room and cautioned him about the same.
After the game, Kohli almost called the Australians cheats because he saw them use the locker room to discuss DRS calls many times, but he refrained.
2. Monkey gate Scandal
During the 2007–08 Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Sydney Test was marred by the infamous Monkeygate affair. During the match, India’s Harbhajan Singh and Australia’s Andrew Symonds got into an argument when Symonds claimed that Singh had called him a monkey while doing some tweaking.
After being suspended for three matches, Harbhajan had his ban overturned after an appeal by the BCCI.
The Indian team wanted out of the series because things had gotten terrible. When the time came, Sachin Tendulkar defended Harbhajan in court. In addition to multiple incorrect calls by the umpires, the game was overshadowed by controversy.
3. Virat Kohli vs Mitchell Johnson, 2014-15
The 2014-2015 Border-Gavaskar Trophy was among the fiercest contests between the two teams in recent memory.
After Virat Kohli’s excellent batting performance in the series, the Australians began slamming him as a spoiled brat.
However, at the third Test, hosted at the lovely Melbourne Cricket Ground, things reached an extreme (MCG). While looking for the wicket, Mitchell Johnson accidentally struck Virat Kohli with the ball on his follow-through. Australia quickly apologises to Kohli, but the Indian captain is not amused.
Kohli, though, had an excellent batting performance, scoring a hundred in the first innings and fifty in the second.