The origin of one of Australia's greatest bowling plans

The Australians had demons.

Adam Gilchrist admits he was "scarred" by previous trips to India.  

Justin Langer says he was "hurt" by the famous Kolkata Test in 2001.

And coach John Buchanan says Australia needed a new way of approaching this challenge.

It's October 2004 and Australia are embarking on another Test tour of India, a series they hadn't won on the subcontinent since 1969.

Twenty years on from this famous Border-Gavaskar battle, Stories After Stumps looks back at the "outside the box" measures that were put in place to allow Australia to pull off what was long considered almost-impossible.

One thing in their favour was the quality of the players at their disposal.

Although Ricky Ponting would miss the first three Tests with a broken thumb, a majority of the squad from 2001 remained. Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, now in their mid-30s, had further enhanced their legendary reputations and were showing no signs of slowing down.

But it was a casual conversation from two of the other bowlers that, at least in their recollection, set the Aussies up for success.

"We got on the plane (to head to India), and I remember sitting with Jason Gillespie," recalls Michael Kasprowicz.

"I said to him, 'I'll be interested on your take on this'."

Kasprowicz, who had already toured India twice, in 1998 and 2001, shared his observations on how he was able to be successful in his stint with Glamorgan in the United Kingdom.

"'Kasper' obviously had a lot of experience in county cricket, and he bowled a lot in Cardiff, where the pitch wasn't particularly conducive to fast bowling," Gillespie tells Stories After Stumps.

"It didn't carry too much. It was bit lower, a bit slower."

Very similar pitch characteristics that the Aussies were bracing for in India.

"We specially found that bouncy out-swingers don't work (on slow wickets)," Kasprowicz says.

"You have to bowl pretty much at the stumps, at off stump, and don't go too much straighter, because batsmen are good there."

The seeds of a potentially brilliant plan had been sown.

"It was great to have that discussion, to plan and to look outside the box," Gillespie says.

"Because it's very easy (to say) we're a successful team … this is our way of playing and we're just going to stick to our plan.

"But it just didn't cut the mustard in that specific environment."

But having a plan is one thing, executing it in foreign, hostile and unforgiving territory is another.

Tune into Stories After Stumps in the player above, or on all podcast platforms, to hear from Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer, John Buchanan, Simon Katich and more on exactly how the tour of India played out.