India and Australia encounters are nothing short of high powered adrenaline shots directly to the heart. The matches get the heart pumping and the excitement just never goes down. India and Australia rivalry has become bigger than the Ashes thanks to the intensity and the confrontational nature of Australian players, who like to play mind games.
There have been many instances where Australian players have sledged the opponents so badly that players have lost their wickets and bowlers have lost their rhythm. However, since the Sourav Ganguly era, Indian players also started giving it back to the Aussies and that has given us many moments of some serious confrontation between players.
We have short listed 5 such moments of sledging between India and Australia for you.
Enjoy!
Sachin Tendulkar sledges Glenn McGrath after hitting him for a six
The Indian team that played in the ICC Knockout Trophy 2000 under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly was a different Indian team, out there to prove themselves after the ugly match-fixing saga. This team had youngsters like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Zaheer Khan, who were free of the match fixing taint and had that much needed aggressive streak in them.
The match against Australia was a big one for India, winning it meant that India would go into the semi-finals. Sachin Tendulkar went into ultra-aggressive mode, especially against Australia’s strike bowler Glenn McGrath. He didn’t let McGrath settle down and hit him for 3 sixes and 2 fours in a short period of assault.
McGrath tried to get into Sachin’s head by sledging him, but Sachin surprised McGrath by using the F word and asking him to go back to the bowling mark.
The infamous Monkeygate scandal between Harbhajan and Symonds
The 2008 India tour of Australia was one of the most scandalous and controversy filled Test series ever. Apart from umpiring errors, which cost India the Sydney Test and overall poor sportsmanship from Australian players like Ponting claiming a catch, despite the ball hitting the ground, giving umpire Mark Benson signal to give batsmen out and other activities that soured the whole tour for Indian team and fans.
However, the biggest controversy happened, when Andrew Symonds accused Harbhajan Singh of calling him a monkey during a confrontation. After match referee Mike Proctor advised a 3 Test ban for Harbhajan for racial sledging, Indian team felt hard done after the first two Tests and threatened to call off the tour.
The ban was later appealed and the punishment was downgraded. Many witnesses from both side, including Sachin Tendulkar provided inputs during the hearing of the appeal and said that Harbhajan used a common Hindi slang to reply to Symonds.
Anil Kumble summed up his view of the game by stating, "Only one team is playing in the spirit of the game."
Virat Kohli is fed up of hitting James Faulkner for boundaries
James Faulkner is a World Cup winner and a Man of the finals in the 2015 World Cup. However, during the 2016 ODI series against India, he was getting on the nerves of Indian batsmen, especially Virat Kohli, who was fed up by constant chatter.
Faulkner was constantly chirping at Kohli during the MCG ODI, when Kohli shut him up with a spot on burn. Kohli said, “I’ve smashed you enough in my life. No point (sledging). Just go and bowl.”
Rohit Sharma-Steve Smith-Virat Kohli in a three way sledging match
India and Australia series in 2014-15 is known for many things. It was the last Test series of MS Dhoni, who retired in middle of the series and Virat Kohli took over from him.
During one of the Tests, Rohit Sharma was bowling to Steve Smith and appealed for an LBW. Steve Smith couldn’t hold himself back and said something to Rohit, who was going back to his mark and turned around to reply to Smith.
Virat Kohli, who was standing at the slips, came to Steve Smith and asked him whether he has problem with everything Indian team is doing. This was followed by David Warner getting into an argument with Rohit Sharma, as Warner asked Rohit to speak in English instead of Hindi.
Umpires intervened to bring calmness to the match and despite more incidents, the Test series was completed without anything big.
Michael Slater loses it at Rahul Dravid
The 2001 India Australia Test series in India is considered to be one of the greatest series every played. Australia had come to play the 1st Test at Mumbai, riding on a 15 match winning streak.
The incident came to head, when Rahul Dravid pulled a shot, which hit the short leg fielder and ballooned up in the air, only for Michael Slater to dive and claim the catch. However, Dravid didn’t budge from his ground, despite Slater claiming the catch was clean. Umpire S Venkataraghavan called for 3rd umpire and after several minutes of replays from all angles, termed that Dravid was not out.
This decision sent Michael Slater into a blind rage and he walked upto Umpire Venkataraghavan to argue about the decision and then turned his focus on Dravid and exchanged heated words with Dravid, who simply stood there motionless.
Journalist Peter Roebuck called it "Slater's moment of madness."
