Australia re-claimed the historic Border-Gavaskar Trophy after clinching the fifth and final Test of the series by 6-wickets at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. With the triumph at SCG, Australia also qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. In the process, India’s attempt at winning the series Down Under for the third time in a row were dashed, as were their hopes of playing the WTC Final.
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Australia overturned the series from a 0-1 margin to clinch it 3-1 with 10-wicket, 184-run and 6-wicket wins at Adelaide Oval, MCG and SCG, respectively. India had won the series opener by 295-runs at Perth.
India had won the four previous series against Australia by 2-1 each time, with two played at home and two away. All four of them, though were four-match series, unlike this one which had five Tests.
The last time Australia had won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was during the 2014-15 tour when a Steve-Smith led side took the honours by 2-0 at home. In that series, Smith led from the front, scoring 769 runs while Nathan Lyon was the top wicket-taker, bagging 23 scalps.
This time, though, it has been a team effort with Travis Head (441 runs), Pat Cummins (25 wickets), Scott Boland (21 wickets) the chief performers.
As Australia clinched the BGT with a boundary off Test debutant Beau Webster, it continued their dominance of some of the biggest events in international cricket. They are also the reigning World Test champions and ODI World Cup winners.
