When Laxman-Dravid’s historic partnership created the golden chapter of cricket

By Samira Vishwas On Mar 23, 2026

The truth is that even those supporting India did not think that there would be such a tremendous partnership (which lasted for almost two days and for the 6th wicket) between VVS Laxman (his 281 was counted by Wisden as one of the top 10 innings of Test cricket) and Rahul Dravid (gave such amazing support while scoring 180 runs which is counted as one of the best performances of batting). This partnership made this Test one of the most unique Tests ever played. India became only the third team to win the Test even after ‘follow-on’ and made the record for the biggest partnership after ‘follow-on’.

India captain Sourav Ganguly rightly says, ‘I have never been involved in any Test greater than this. I don’t know which formula won these tests because I didn’t do anything. This just happened. In the second innings, India surprised by scoring 657/7 and the lead of 383 runs put such pressure on Australia that they completely broke. Young spinner Harbhajan Singh took 6 wickets, while Sachin Tendulkar took three wickets and created history.

Back then, Australia were no weak team, and beating them after getting the ‘follow-on’ on that made it even more special. Many people consider this to be as special a turning point for Indian cricket as winning the 1983 World Cup was. India stopped Australia’s record of winning 16 consecutive test matches. Much has been written about how the game progressed in Tests, but there are also many strange and interesting behind-the-scenes stories that reveal the atmosphere and mood of Tests. Some such funny moments and interesting facts:

* In this innings, sending Dravid to bat at number 6 and promoting Laxman up was an amazing master stroke decision.

* According to Venkatapathy Raju, who played in the Test, when Australia gave ‘follow-on’, Laxman had said at that very moment, ‘Maybe we can win this match.’ Raju was surprised to hear this because it was very difficult to believe this at that time. According to the scorecard, in his last test, apart from taking the wicket of Mark Waugh, Raju scored 4 runs with the bat, but with the bat he made a historical contribution which is not known about. Believe me, Laxman played that historic innings of 281 runs with a bat borrowed from Raju.

* After scoring just 20 and 12 runs in the first Test of the series in Mumbai, Laxman was very disappointed and went to Shirdi to seek blessings of Sai Baba. Before going to Kolkata, when I went to Hyderabad, I visited two different temples there too. He says that the mental peace he got from visiting all these temples enabled him to bat that changed the course of the history of Indian cricket.

* Australia’s head coach John Buchanan still regrets the decision of ‘follow-on’ and believes that he had taken such a decision due to emotions. Called it ‘my worst decision as a coach’. Interesting fact is that after this Kolkata Test, Steve Waugh gave follow-on seven more times and won the test every time.

* Two days before the Test, Laxman had a severe back strain, making it difficult to move, but physio Andrew Leaps got him fit. Dravid also had viral fever before the test and also had the problem of muscle cramping.

* When this wonderful partnership started getting established, Sourav Ganguly told all the players to remain sitting wherever they were when the partnership started.

* When Ganguly called Tendulkar to bowl in the second innings, he told him, ‘There is only one over for you.’ Tendulkar, however, sent dangerous batsmen Gilchrist (0), Hayden (67: top scorer of that innings) and Shane Warne (on googly) to the pavilion. The amazing thing is that all three batsmen, out of Tendulkar’s first three, were out on the third ball of each over.

* When Shane Warne came to bat in the first innings, Harbhajan was on the verge of taking a hat-trick. Took two wickets. For that ball, fielder Sadagopan Ramesh voluntarily stood a little to the right and coincidentally the ball went straight into his hands. Harbhajan was so happy with the hat-trick scored by that catch that he promised to take Ramesh for dinner. It has been 25 years but Harbhajan has not had dinner and the interesting thing is that Harbhajan still remembers this promise.

* Even after the defeat, the Australian team showed amazing sportsmanship and went to the Indian dressing room to congratulate Team India on the victory. Later, Steve Waugh also asked Dravid to write the foreword of his autobiography.

* When Laxman and Dravid were at the crease, Nayan Mongia was next in line to bat. During their long partnership, he sat wearing a pad, waiting for his turn.

* Indian team coach John Wright has mentioned in detail about this test in his book ‘Indian Summers’; The chapter in which this ‘Eden Test’ is mentioned is titled ‘The Greatest Comeback since Lazarus’.

* One of the two on-ground umpires, England’s Peter Willey (the other: SK Bansal), officiated for the second time in a Test that was won by the team playing ‘follow-on’. He played in the historic England-Australia Test match held in Leeds in 1981.