From Dravid’s defence being breached to Dhoni’s exit midway through a series – Indian legends who bid adieu to the Test stage against Australia

Rahul Dravid to MS Dhoni: Indian legends who bid adieu to the Test stage against Australia (AP/Reuters)

With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy set to start in Perth on November 22, we look back at some of the Indian legends who played their final Tests against the men in baggy green caps.

Anil Kumble
In the twilight of his glittering career, Kumble was captain during the infamous Monkeygate episode in Sydney in January 2008. The dignity with which he led the side earned him much praise, but he was finding it hard to match the standards he had set himself as a bowler. When Australia came to India later that year, he played his home Test in Bengaluru before announcing that the Delhi game – at the venue where he had taken all 10 Pakistani wickets in 1999 – would be his last.

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Sourav Ganguly
The leader of perhaps Indian cricket’s most celebrated triumph, against Steve Waugh’s Australia in 2000-01, Ganguly enjoyed a revival of sorts after being dropped in the Greg Chappell era. But by the time Australia visited these shores in 2008, age was catching up, and a new generation pressing for recognition. Ganguly signed off in the fourth and final Test in Nagpur, making a sparkling 85 in the first innings before being out for a duck in his last.

Rahul Dravid
India’s previous overseas tour had seen Dravid make three centuries, even as the team lost 4-0 in England. In Australia, in 2011-12, he began with a typically gritty 68 in Melbourne. But thereafter, the runs dried up, and he had scores of 10, 5, 29, 9, 47, 1 and 25. His defensive technique, once cited as the model for aspiring cricketers, fell apart as he was bowled six times in the eight innings. After returning to India, Dravid called a press conference in Bengaluru and announced his retirement.

VVS Laxman
Laxman was another who had often saved his best for Australian conditions. His first Test century was at the Sydney Cricket Ground in January 2000, and he made three more in Australia. But on that ill-fated tour of 2011-12, he went past 50 only once while four times failing to get into double digits. Before the start of the next season, Laxman briefly contemplated a home farewell in Hyderabad, but decided against it. Australia would remain the last chapter.

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Virender Sehwag
Once the most-feared opener in the game, Sehwag crunched a typically punishing century to start his penultimate series against England in late 2012. But a string of failures followed as India lost that series, and when he began the home Tests against Australia with scores of 2, 19 and 6, the die was cast. Shikhar Dhawan, another swashbuckling Delhi opener, would take his place.

MS Dhoni
Of the 90 Tests that Dhoni played in just nine years, a whopping 60 were as captain. The first half of that captaincy tenure had been a charmed one, as India ascended to the top of the Test rankings and won the World Cup. Then, as an aging team came apart at the seams, it was Dhoni that had to face the flak. Back-to-back overseas whitewashes – 4-0 in England in 2011 and the same scoreline in Australia months later – tarnished his reputation, and it was clear that he was worn down by the time India lost 3-1 in England in 2014. In Australia at the end of that year, he played in Brisbane and Melbourne before announcing that his race was run, and handing over to Virat Kohli.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz