Seven innings, five twenties, no forty. At first glance, Pant's 2024-25 tour of Australia does not seem inconsistent when pitted against 2018-19 (reached 25 seven times in seven innings but forty only once) and 2020-21 (five innings, five twenties, two forties).

Unfortunately, 2024-25 has lacked the standout performances that have been the hallmark of Pant's first two tours. India were happy to back him – until the defeat at Melbourne. He made 28 and 30 there, but his modes of dismissal drew more criticism than the actual scores.

In the first innings, with India still fighting to avoid the follow-on, he mistimed a scoop and was caught at deep-third. In the second, with a session to bat out , he bunted a long-hop from Travis Head (of all people) to long-on , and India caved in.

Since then, there have been reports of him making way for Dhruv Jurel at Sydney. If they turn out to be true, it will be deja vu for Indian fans who might recall a similar incident from four decades ago, when England were touring India. Sunil Gavaskar, who lambasted Pant for his Melbourne dismissal, led India at that point.

Delhi Horrors

India might have won the World Cup, but they were going through a horror run in Test cricket when the home series against England began: they had gone 31 Tests without a single win. Despite that, a tour of India was always an arduous task.

This time it was different. Indira Gandhi, the Indian prime minister, was assassinated soon after the England squad landed in India. As riots broke out all over the nation, the cricketers stayed in Sri Lanka. They finally returned, and Percy Norris, the deputy high commissioner of the UK, hosted the England side for a dinner the night before the Test series. Norris was assassinated as well.

On the field, a young leg-spinner called L Sivaramakrishnan took 6-64 and 6-117; Ravi Shastri and Syed Kirmani made hundreds; and India ended their winless streak and took the lead.

India made 307 in the second Test, at Delhi. Tim Robinson's marathon effort – he batted 508 minutes for his 160 – helped England secure a 111-run lead (Sivaramakrishnan took 6-99 this time). Norman Cowans then broke through twice, but Gavaskar, the captain, and Mohinder Amarnath took India to 128-2 by stumps on the fourth day.

It was as good as an unloseable position. England got both batters the next morning, but at 207-4, India seemed safe. Then came the moments that turned the course of the Test.

Sandeep Patil, a natural stroke-player, fell first, after being tied down by left-arm spinner Phil Edmonds (who often bowled in a white cap on this tour) and off-spinner Pat Pocock. The mistimed pull, little more than a desperate attempt to break the shackles, went to Allan Lamb at deep mid-wicket.

Kapil Dev walked out. Most would have preferred to dig deep. Not Kapil. Five years down the line, with India requiring 24 to avoid the follow-on at Lord's, Kapil would hit four sixes off four consecutive balls. Just like Patil, his strength lay in his shots, not his defence. Besides, India were already in the lead, and a few blows would have helped them stretch that.

Kapil tried to clear long-on off the fourth ball he faced. It went to the fielder on the bounce, and he retained the strike. Now, against off-spinner Pat Pocock, he cleared long-on comfortably. Seven off three, his score. Then he went for an encore. This time the ball went to long-off – and found Lamb again.

Edmonds and Pocock took over. Anshuman Gaekwad, battling an ankle injury, finally emerged, but could not last. Pocock ran through Kirmani's defence. Having survived a close call early in his innings, Shivlal Yadav kept out 39 balls for a solitary run, but Sivaramakrishnan did not last.

From 207-4, India folded for 235. Shastri, the other centurion from Bombay, was left stranded. England won by eight wickets.

The historic axe

The selectors were prompt in their decision-making: they dropped Patil and, more significantly, Kapil, from the next Test match, at Calcutta.

The decision sent ripples across the cricket-crazy fanbase that were still recovering from the Delhi collapse. Sure, many of them had wanted Kapil and Patil to be dropped – but few would have actually expected that to happen.

Things reached a stage where BCCI chair NKP Salve himself requested the selectors to reconsider. The selectors did not relent. Over a 131-match Test career, Calcutta 1984-85 remain the only Test Kapil would miss.

Gavaskar himself did not have a vote, but it did not matter. Speculations of a rift between the two greatest Indian cricketers until then had been running rife for more than a year. It didn't help that Gavaskar had replaced Kapil, who had replaced Gavaskar, at the helm. By the time the team had arrived in Calcutta – a city with cricket fans renowned for extreme emotions – many fans were of the belief that Gavaskar had dropped Kapil.

Gavaskar's vows

It rained on the second day, but even then, there was little sense in Gavaskar's “perverse decision” to not declare even in the 11th session of the Test after he had won the toss and opted to bat. The soft slogans in the stands took a murky turn as the Test went on – it was the first Test I watched at a venue – until things threatened to get out of hand. “No Kapil, no Test” and “we want Kapil, Gavaskar go back” banners showed up.

Amidst all this, Mohammad Azharuddin (batting in a helmet that seemed at least one size too large), made a hundred on debut. So did Shastri, but they crawled at under two an over during their 214-run stand. India finally declared on 437-7, but not before Edmonds picked up a newspaper and began to read it while fielding in the outfield.

The crowd was particularly incensed when some fans spotted Gavaskar in the pavilion (there were no giant screens back then). When he led his team on the field, Gavaskar was pelted with fruit, and play was held up until things were cleared.

The match ended in a draw the next day. When Shastri opened the batting, he became the fifth cricketer to bat on all five days of a Test match.

The Eden Gardens crowd had booed Gavaskar a year ago, after his twin failures and India's disastrous defeat against the West Indians. He had returned to play there against England, but not anymore: he vowed never to play there again, and duly skipped the next season's Test, against Pakistan.

When he fell cheaply in the 1987 World Cup semi-final against England (and India lost), the rumours resurfaced: did he throw it away to deliberately avoid playing the final at the Eden Gardens?

Postscript

Kapil returned to play for India, but Patil did not play another Test match (though he did play a few ODIs). Azharuddin hit hundreds in his second and third Tests as well, setting a world record that still stands.

England took the series with a nine-wicket win at Madras, where Neil Foster took 6-104 and 5-59 on either side of double hundreds from Graeme Fowler and Mike Gatting. They next won a Test series in India in 2012-13.

In 2017, I was present at an event at the Cricket Club of India in Bombay (Mumbai by then). Kapil's axing was one of the first questions to come up. Gavaskar denied the accusations around him being responsible. He reminded that he did not have a vote. Kapil accepted that version of events in front of the media.

Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores , match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news , player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds .