The first test between India and Australia in the 1998 series was played at Chennai. India batted first and was expected to put up a huge total in home conditions. The wickets were spin-friendly and Warne did not carry much reputation as a wicket-taking bowler against India. The main reason for the loss of reputation was the way Sachin Tendulkar had him.
In the humid heat of Chepauk, Sachin started the same way and hit Warne’s first ball for a four. Critics thought that Australian captain Mark Taylor had erred again by bringing in Warne too early into attack against Tendulkar. As usual, Tendulkar was in an aggressive mood against Warne. But Taylor had the last laugh as Tendulkar’s sojourn lasted for only five deliveries. Warne induced a false stroke and Sachin was caught by the Australian captain himself. Twenty overs later, Warne again made Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin play a false stroke and had him caught. Later, he had Javagal Srinath and another Indian batsman caught in a span of four overs. While Srinath’s wicket may not be considered a prized one, the fourth batsman was Rahul Dravid. In a spell of 35 overs, Shane Warne had got the better of three world-class batsmen to end up with four wickets. India was restricted to 257.
The next Test of the same series was played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. India again batted first and Warne clean-bowled a well set Navjot Sidhu and then did the same to Rahul Dravid. In the second innings, Warne took the wickets of the two Indian openers Sidhu and Laxman to end up with five wickets in the match. Australia won the test by eight wickets.
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In the famous Test of Kolkata played in 2001, Warne took the crucial wickets of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to bundle India out for 171. India followed on. And it’s not Warne’s fault that the same two batsmen whom he had got out cheaply in the first innings went on to play the innings of their lifetime in the second innings. Laxman’s 281 and Rahul Dravid’s 180 were scored not just against Shane Warne. On that day, even the great Glenn Mcgrath and the brilliant Jason Gillespie could not make any impact on the two great Indian batsmen. It was not that Shane Warne bowled badly. It’s just that he ran into two great batsmen who played once in a lifetime knocks in that match.
Rarely has a side gone on to win a match after being asked to follow on. And it needed a superman effort to be able to dominate a spinner of Warne’s genius. Such was the class of VVS Laxman that day, that he repeatedly stepped out to Warne to flick the turning ball against the spin for four. Dravid on the other hand repeatedly played the inside out stroke through the covers. It was batsmanship of the highest class. It is naive to say that Shane Warne bowled badly. He just came across two extraordinary batsmen who played the innings of their lifetime.
Three years later in a Test match in Chennai in 2004, Warne took six first innings wickets to deny India a victory on their home soil. In the heat of Chennai, Shane bowled 43 overs at an economy of less than three runs. In the next test at Nagpur, Warne dislodged Laxman and Virendra Sehwag to help Australia win the test.
It is interesting to observe Warne record on Asian wickets against teams other than India. In a test match in Karachi in 1994, he picked up Aamir Sohail, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Rashid Latif in the first innings of the match. In the second innings, he took five wickets and rattled Pakistan’s middle order to end up with 8 wickets in the match. In the next Test in the same series at Lahore, Warne got nine wickets in the match. His dismissals included openers Saeed Anwar and Aamer Sohail, and Ijaz Ahmed and Basit Ali in the middle order.
The leg spinner’s greatest performance in the subcontinent came in a three-Test series against Sri Lanka in 2004. The Sri Lankan team had in their ranks such fine players as the dashing Sanath Jayasuriya and the solid Marvan Atapattu. The upper middle order had the class of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Mahela Jayawardene and the lower middle order two Tillakaratnes in the form of Hashan and Dilshan. Then there was Samaraweera and Upul Chandana and finally Chaminda Vaas, all three of whom could bat.
It was a formidable batting line up at home, especially against spin. Against this batting line up, Shane Warne took 10 wickets in the first Test to help Australia win by 197 runs. If this was not enough, Warne repeated the same feat again and took 10 wickets in the second Test to help Australia win by 27 runs. In the last Test, Warne took another six wickets to end up with 26 wickets in three Tests. Thanks to Warne, Australia made a clean sweep in the three-Test series away from home against a world-class batting line up.
Shane Warne did not fail on pitches of the subcontinent. He just ran into a legendary batting line up against India, comprising of all-time greats like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virendra Sehwag.
Kush Singh @singhkb is the founder of The Cricket Curry Tour Company. Views are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)