Watch this flashback to Kolkata 2001, when Laxman and Dravid scripted cricket's greatest comeback
On this day that year, Australia were expecting to wrap up a comfortable victory in Kolkata. Instead, they met a very very special force.
March 14, 2001. Kolkata. It is the fourth day of the second Test between India and Australia. VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid walk out in the morning. The score reads 254/4. This is India's second innings – forced to follow on after being bowled out for 171 in the first in response to Australia's 445. Laxman is on 109, but the writing is on the wall and it does not seem long until Steve Waugh's rampaging team gets its record 17th consecutive win in Test cricket.
It was the greatest Test match ever played. Seldom have fortunes been turned around so dramatically during a single day's play. At stumps, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had still not been separated. Laxman was now on 275, Dravid on 155. India's score read 589/4. From trailing at the start of the day, they now led by a humongous 315 runs. In one sultry Kolkata spring day, the match had been turned on its head.
Laxman and Dravid were simply unstoppable. This was an Australian attack which till then had dominated the Indian batsmen, but was torn to shreds that day. Laxman stepped out and repeatedly hit the great Shane Warne through the rough. Australia's two premier fast bowlers, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie, were smashed down the ground. And by the end of the day, those who were wondering when the match would end suddenly started asking if a miracle could take place.
And it did. Only two teams had ever won a Test Match after being asked to follow on. And incredibly, India became the third team to achieve the feat, bowling Australia out on the final day. The win was a watershed moment for Indian cricket in many ways – India went on to win the series in Chennai and under Sourav Ganguly, became a world-beater.