India's squad when Australia last beat them at home in 2004

Bowlers

Irfan Pathan showed plenty of promise early on in his career

Irfan Pathan

Irfan Pathan possessed serious pace at this stage of his career and had the ability to make the ‘ball talk’ by swinging it both ways. He enjoyed limited success against Australia, picking up a total of 2 wickets in the first two Tests before being dropped to accommodate Ajit Agarkar in the squad.

Irfan Pathan became the darling of the Indian public after his unbelievable hat-trick against Pakistan in 2006. A series of injuries would ravage his playing career thereafter.

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Ajit Agarkar

Ajit Agarkar’s Test career never took off like his ODI career where he was undoubtedly one of India’s biggest match winners in the late 90s and early 2000s. His success in the limited-overs format meant he was always lingering around the Test squad, never really cementing a place.

He replaced Irfan Pathan in the Nagpur Test but had even less success as he only managed 1 wicket. He went on to represent India in only 4 Tests after the Australia series.

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Murali Karthik

Murali Karthik spent a career on the fringes as he always seemed one game away from cementing his place in the squad. Despite plenty of success in the domestic circuit, he could never break through the India squad in the early 2000s due to the presence of Harbhajan Singh and Anil Kumble.

Given a chance against Australia in the final two Tests, he enjoyed a lot of success, picking up 5 in Nagpur and a match-winning 7 in Mumbai. While one might have expected him to play more Tests after that, he only went on to represent his country one more time.