In cricket, perhaps, the only battle that can give the Ashes a run for its money, is the series between India and Australia. The Aussies always had the penchant for unnerving and needling their opponents, both on and off the field (read, press conferences). While sledging has worked for them more often than not, there have been times when the move had backfired.
It was, probably, in the 2001 series that the Indians found their voice, literally, with their aggressive skipper, Sourav Ganguly, showing the way. 'Dada' played mind games with his counterpart Steve Waugh, and his teammates (at least some of them), taking their cue from him, gave it back to the Aussies. India won the series in emphatic fashion, and it sowed the seeds of a great cricketing rivalry, which has grown deep roots over the years.
With the four-match Test series in India between the two teams about to start from February 23, things have already started heating up. Australian captain Steve Smith, has already given his teammates the green signal to engage in verbal duels. His teammate, Glenn Maxwell, has, however, said that he won't be provoking Indian captain Virat Kohli, given the kind of form he is in. Team India is on a 19-match winning streak in Tests, with Kohli scoring a record four double centuries in as many consecutive series. Former Aussie batsman Michael Hussey, too, has advised the visitors against sledging Kohli.
While it remains to be seen how much these mind games will affect the results on the field, let us take a look at five instances when sledging had spiced up the encounters between the two champion sides:
When Sachin had a go at McGrath
Sachin Tendulkar is known to let his bat do the talking even when his opponents get under his skin. In a departure of sorts, in the quarterfinal of the ICC Knockout Trophy 2000, the Little Master, as part of the team strategy, took on Australian spearhead Glenn McGrath. He stepped out in McGrath's first over and provoked him by saying, “Today I will hit you out of the ground.” He went on to hit three sixes against him, before being finally dismissed for 38 runs by Brett Lee. The plan worked as McGrath lost his rhythm, and ended up conceding 61 runs in nine overs without a wicket. For a change, the Australian great, who was adept at sledging, had no answer.
Steve Waugh trolls Parthiv Patel
The year was 2004 and the Border-Gavaskar series was being played in Australia. It was still early days for young Indian wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. In the fourth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground, which was also Steve Waugh's last Test match, Patel decided to provoke him to upset his concentration. When the Australian stalwart walked in to bat, Patel quipped, “Come on Steve, just one more of your popular slog-sweeps before you quit.” The veteran's reply was pure class: “Show a bit of respect. You were in nappies when I debuted 18 years ago.” Talk about going out with a bang.
'Monkey' on the back, and more
The year 2008 was, perhaps, the darkest hour in the history of verbal spats between the two teams. In the second Test of the four-match series, at the SCG, Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds, a non-white player, accused Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh of racially abusing him by calling him 'monkey'. Though the bowler, and the rest of the Indian team, denied it saying he had used a Hindi expletive, Singh was handed a three-match ban by match referee Mike Procter. Indians even threatened to pull out of the series. The ban was later revoked after a hearing. There were a few crucial umpiring errors in the match, which added to the overall tension. Indian captain Anil Kumble's remark that “only one team was playing with the spirit of the game, that's all I can say”, too, created a lot of bad blood between the teams, which continued when, later that year, Australia toured India. Zaheer Khan got into an altercation with Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting, while Gautam Gambhir had run-ins with Shane Watson and Simon Katich.
When Watson didn't find it funny
In the seven-match marathon ODI series between the two teams in 2013, it all boiled down to the decider in Bengaluru—two matches were washed out. India had won the previous match in Nagpur, and Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan's century celebration had not gone down well with Australian all-rounder Shane Watson. In the Bengaluru ODI, in which Indian opener Rohit Sharma scored 209 runs, Watson left the field with a hamstring injury after bowling just five overs. Chasing a target of 384, Watson came down the order due to the injury. In an unsporting gesture, Dhawan and later Suresh Raina mocked the limping Australian all-rounder, following which Dhawan and Watson had a verbal spat. He scored 49 runs but couldn't guide his team to victory, and was given a send-off by Ravindra Jadeja when he was dismissed. Kohli and James Faulkner, too, had a run-in later in the match.
The flashpoint in 2014-15
India's tour of Australia in 2014-15 was, in a way, a free-for-all. There were verbal duels at the drop of the hat, emphatic send-offs, staring, eventful press conferences and, of course, disciplinary actions. And the person in the centre of it all was Kohli. He 'had a word' with almost everyone in the Australian team, taking special liking, however, to speedster Mitchell Johnson. But the more the Aussies provoked him, the better he seemed to perform, notching up four centuries in the four-Test series, which India eventually lost 2-0. “I respect a few of them but if someone doesn't respect me, I've got no reason to respect them,” was how Kohli summed up his emotions.
Indian bowler Varun Aaron and Dhawan, too, had a heated exchange with Aussie opener David Warner. The diminutive Aussie opener was in the thick of things again in the ODI tri-series that followed the Tests, where he got into an altercation with Rohit Sharma.
