2001, Australia's tour of India, India win 2-1

Batting

That India's victory came riding largely on Laxman's is well known, but just to get an more precise idea of the impact he had, here are some figures. While the Indian team was averaging 36.81 per batsmen in the series, Laxman averaged a good 83.63, and not just because of the 281, but also thanks to three more fifties in the remaining five innings. All of which meant he deviated from the team's average by a massive 47.02 points.

India's batting successes in the series also came through fantastic batting from Sachin and Rahul Dravid (averaging 22.91 and 19.52 runs more than the team's average), while Ganguly had a pretty lousy series, averaging only 17.66. So, to come close to reaching the standards they did with the bat in 2001, India will need either Laxman, Dravid and Sachin to play as well, or for Ganguly, Yuvraj and Dhoni to step up/ support them.

One name lugged Australia through all the webs, swamps and other assorted ambushes that Harbhajan laid for them, and that was Matthew Hayden. With this series Hayden came back into international cricket after many years of nothingness, and stayed there, marking his comeback with a series even better than the one Laxman had, with an average of 109.8, while the rest of the team was sweating it out at 40.26.

There was support from Steve Waugh, who knocked his runs about at 48.6. Both these batsmen were primarily responsible for Australia's average of 40.26. Significantly, Gilchrist and Ponting had a pathetic series. After a century in the first game, Gilchrist struggled to get anything on board, with a king pair in Kolkata, while Ponting averaged, well...3.4.

Bowling

The Australian bowling attack in 2001 was almost completely different from the one India will face now. It was a colourful one, with the big bully Mc'Grath, Shane Warne, and the two eccentrics - Gillespie and Miller. Mc'grath was a bit of a lone ranger, averaging a fantastic 15.35, while the rest of the bowlers were carted around for over 30 runs per innings, Warne bearing the brunt with an average of 50.5. For the Indians, it was all Harbhajan Singh and little else.

Relevance now

India's win came despite have both, a poorer team batting average, and bowling average. The Australians were hit primarily on account of the shock value of Laxman's innings, helped by Sachin and Dravid with the bat, and eventually supplanted by Harbhajan Singh.

Its relevance now is limited, since it is unlikely that we are going to see individual efforts of this magnitude. What is relevant is that contrary to general perception, Australia had a more individual effort than India did, which is not likely to happen now. Also, their bowling attack now is much stronger than it was in 2001, with everone except Mc'Grath coming unstuck in the 'Final Frontier' series.

Batting Performances

Bowling Performances