As we build up to the upcoming five-Test series, ESPNcricinfo, Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar are inviting you to help us identify India's best individual Border-Gavaskar Trophy performance in Australia in the 21st century. We've shortlisted 16 performances and paired them up against each other. All you have to do now is vote to send one of the following into the quarter-finals.
Anil Kumble - 8-141 & 4-138 in Sydney, 2004
Match drawn, series drawn 1-1
Anil Kumble's match-winning ability was unquestionable at home but he hadn't earned a similar reputation overseas. This Australia tour was an opportunity to improve that aspect of his game. Having started the tour on the bench, he replaced an injured Harbhajan Singh in the second Test. By the time the final match began at the SCG, with the series level 1-1, Kumble had bowled the most overs by an Indian bowler and taken a five-for in the famous win in Adelaide.
In Sydney, after India posted 705 in the first innings, Kumble bowled 46.5 overs to pick up 8 for 141, his second-best haul after his perfect ten, and give India a lead of 231, which they extended to 442 before declaring late on the fourth day.
Bowling another 42 overs in Australia's second innings, Kumble went on to take 4 for 138 - his match-haul of 12 was his best overseas - but India were only able to take six wickets in total, falling agonisingly short of what would have been their maiden series win down under.
By Shashank Kishore
Watch the highlights of these performances on the Star Sports network at 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm IST, from October 25 onwards.
Virat Kohli - 123 in Perth, 2018
India lost by 146 runs, series level 1-1
Virat Kohli was already one of India's greatest batters before 2018. He stepped up to an even more rarefied level that year, scoring 1322 runs at an average of 55.08 over 24 innings, of which 22 were played in South Africa, England and Australia.
Conditions in all three tours were hard on batters, but the more challenging they became, the more Kohli seemed to relish them. When he walked in to bat in Perth, everything must have looked familiar. India had lost the toss and conceded a bigger total than they should have, bowling well but not without spells of releasing pressure. Then they lost early wickets.
In similar circumstances, Kohli had scored 153 at Centurion and 149 at Edgbaston. Now, from 8 for 2, he proceeded to play an even better innings. This was a proper trampoline of a pitch, and Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were routinely getting the ball to rear throat-high from just back of a length. Kohli negotiated the vertical threat expertly, though not without suffering blows to his arm and ribs, but the standout feature of his innings was how well he dealt with Australia's attempts to sucker him with full balls after pushing him back.
Almost every time there was an opportunity to drive, he did so pristinely, down the ground or through the covers with a decisive front-foot stride. A 20th century version of this list would have undoubtedly contained Sachin Tendulkar's 114 in Perth in 1992. Kohli's innings came at Perth Stadium and not the WACA, and just as the new ground seamlessly carried forward the old one's legacy of pace and bounce, a new master had carried forward an old master's legacy.
Karthik Krishnaswamy