Cricket / India's highest and lowest total in Test cricket history both came on December 19

Cricket Desk: The date December 19 has now gone down in the history books of Indian Test cricket as the day when the team scored their highest and incredibly, their lowest Test totals.

Both instances were under Virat Kohli's captaincy.

December 19, 2016 and December 19, 2020

India, under the leadership of Virat Kohli, scored 759/7 declared against England in 2016 in the Chennai Test. That is still their highest-ever Test innings total and was registered on December 19, 2016. India batted only once in that match and thrashed England by an innings and 75 runs.

Exactly four years later, on December 19, 2020 Team India were skittled out for a paltry 36 by the Aussies in the Day and Night Test in Adelaide. No Indian batsman could get to double digits in their second innings. Mayank Agarwal's 9 was India's highest individual score. This (36) has now become their lowest-ever Test score in an innings, beating their previous lowest score of 42 vs England at Lord's, 46 years ago, in 1974.

India, riding on Karun Nair's magnificent unbeaten triple century (303 off 381 balls) and KL Rahul's 199 off 311 balls, posted a mammoth 759/7 declared against England at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk, Chennai.

On Saturday, India collapsed to their lowest Test score of 36 as a rampaging Australia cruised to an emphatic eight-wicket victory inside two and a half days.

The scores of the Indian batters - 4, 9, 2, 0, 4, 0, 8, 4, 0, 4, and 1 on the scorecard in their second innings will hurt the fans and Indian captain Kohli, who has to leave the tour now on this disappointing note. He will now return to India for the birth of his first child. India will have to go into the remaining three Tests without their key batsman and talismanic captain.

For Australia, the wrecker-in-chief on Saturday was Josh Hazlewood (5-3-8-5). Hazlewood was well supported by Pat Cummins (10.2-4-21-4). The duo showcased fast bowling of the highest quality.