Former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne is of the opinion that his then captain Steve Waugh made an error in enforcing the follow-on against India in the yet memorable 2001 Kolkata Test.
Having dismissed India for just 171 in the first innings in response to their mammoth 445, the Aussies decided to put the home team in again. And for a while, the decision was being vindicated until Rahul Dravid joined VVS Laxman for the fifth-wicket.
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Together, Dravid (180) and Laxman (281) pulled off one of Test cricket's greatest recovery acts via a partnership of 376 runs. Staring down the barrel on Day 3, the Indian team declared early on Day 5 at 657/7 and went on to dismiss the visitors for 212 in an unbelievable fightback that resulted in a 171-run win.
Warne thinks the Aussies' task of bowling out India again would've been a lot easier had their skipper given his attack some breathing space in between and not enforce the follow-on.
“It was 45 degrees and we’d been out in the field for a long time. The wicket was going to get worse. I think at that time, I remember Steve Waugh coming up to us bowlers - Gillespie, McGrath, myself and Kasprowicz," Warne said while commentating for Sky Sports on Day 2 of the third Test in England-Pakistan series in Southampton.
"As we had them seven down, eight down, nine down, Steve came up and went ‘Hey! How you feeling?’. McGrath was like ‘I’m a bit weary. I was like... weary, let’s use that word. Kasprowicz was like ‘I’m ready to go skip’."
Waugh had hailed that India tour as his team's 'final frontier' having dominated the rest of the world.
The visitors won the first Test in Mumbai on a turning wicket in dominating fashion by ten wickets and that stretched their steak of successive Test wins to 16.
Warne accused his skipper of letting the ambition of a record 17th consecutive win and beating India in its own den get the better of his judgement as a tactician.
“Those were completely different conditions back then and Steve was adamant that he wanted to win that record amount of Test matches in a row, I think it was 17."
“To me, that was the only way India could win the Test match. If we go and bat again and make the 200-lead into 450, India would have tried and saved the match and it would have been a completely different game. So yeah, I think he got that wrong," Warne added.
