Miracle at Eden

Martin Chandler | 8:19am BST 26 April 2026

Published: 2026
Pages: 96
Author: Sengupta, Ayon (Editor)
Publisher: Sportstar

Test cricket is the finest form of the game, where skill continues to count for more than brute force, where tactics and the balance of power in the game ebb and flow across days, where the greatest sporting dramas unfold and events are seared on memories for a lifetime.

Just occasionally, because of the success of and enormous interest and hype surrounding the IPL, some of us lose sight of the fact that as a nation India loves Test cricket as much as we do. It is publications like this that reinforce that point. India have been involved in many great Test matches over the years but, for most, none quite so remarkable as the one celebrated in Miracle at Eden.

The match itself needs little by way of introduction. It is the one from 25 years ago where, having conceded a first innings deficit of 274 to the great Australian side of the time, India came back to claim victory and do so by the remarkable margin of 171 runs.

The great turn around was started by the batsman, and VVS Laxman’s 281 and Rahul Dravid’s 180 set up the victory, but Harbhajan Singh’s 13 wickets (including a hat trick) were important as well. For once the contribution with the bat of Sachin Tendulkar was minor, scoring just 10 in each innings, but he supported Harbhajan well in the Australian second innings and picked up three important wickets.

So certainly a match that is worthy of an anniversary publication, and the end result of the publisher’s effort would be better described as a souvenir rather than a book, which is probably just as well as, despite the decline in accounts of cricket tours over the years, the 2000/01 series between India and Australia has been written about before.

The first fifty or so pages deal with a day by day description of how the match unfolded, but the account is lavishly illustrated. The text is from the pen of veteran scribe Vijay Lokapally who was one of those fortunate enough to have spent the whole match in the press box at Eden Gardens. On this occasion he wisely bears in mind that most of his readers will have seen the play in some way or other and his narrative supplements rather than dominates the images the editorial team have chosen. It is testament to the timeless nature of his talent that the words he wrote at the time remain fresh a quarter of a century on.

What gives the book its ‘special’ status is what follows the account of the match. There are, naturally, more images but also thirteen interviews with those involved. In the main these are the Indian players, beginning with skipper Saurav Ganguly and followed by Laxman, Dravid, Harbhajan, Nayan Mongia, Venkatapathy Raju and Sadagoppan Ramesh. Also spoken to were coach John Wright, Aussies Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie as well as umpire SK Bansal. Last but by no means least there are also contributions from the two men whose work makes up the bulk of the book, Lokapally and photographer VV Krishnan.

But whilst some Test matches are remembered in isolation in truth Test cricket does not really work like that. The Miracle at Eden was the second of a three match series. The visitors had won the first Test comfortably by ten wickets, but India took the last by two wickets to claim the series and Lokapally ends the book by reproducing the compelling series summary that he wrote at the time.