BGT rewind: Binga's Boisterous Boxing Day debut

Where: Melbourne Cricket Ground (venue of fourth Test, 26-30 December 2024)

When: 28 December 1999 (second Test, day three)

What was happening: 

Laden with an array of generational batting talents and led by the most venerated of them all, Sachin Tendulkar's India arrived in Australia for the 1999-2000 Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign cautiously eyeing a first series win here. 

The visitors were dealt a sobering reality check in the opening Test at Adelaide, where they were thumped by 285 runs and their skipper was sent packing for a controversial second innings-duck when adjudged lbw trying to bend beneath a Glenn McGrath bouncer.

But they had received an even more brutal wake-up call earlier in the tour when they first crossed paths with a fire-breathing, if uncapped, young fast bowler by the name of Brett Lee. 

The 23-year-old was being touted as a future Test spearhead who was biding his time behind incumbents McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Damien Fleming and Michael Kasprowicz.

His chance to further those ambitions came when he lined up for New South Wales in a pre-Test tour game against India and captured 3-57 and 4-77 against the visitors' vaunted line-up on a sluggish SCG pitch.

The tearaway right-armer followed up that showing with 4-25 against the same opponents in a Prime Minister's XI one-day game at Manuka Oval and was clearly knocking on the door for higher honours.

When NSW then played a Sheffield Shield game at the WACA Ground in Perth, Lee terrorised the home team's Test batters Justin Langer, Damien Martyn and Adam Gilchrist as well as fracturing the forearm of rival fast bowler Jo Angel with a searing bouncer.

Legendary Australia quick and mentor to many an aspiring speed demon Dennis Lillee opined of Lee: "He will be the fastest ever, if he is not already there." 

Australia Test skipper Steve Waugh described Lee's spell at the WACA the fastest he had witnessed – no small boast given he had faced up to Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar at the same venue a month earlier – and urged national selector Geoff Marsh to get Lee in a Baggy Green Cap. 

Marsh and his fellow selectors paid heed to their Test captain, and less than a week after his eight-wicket haul at the WACA Lee was named in the squad for the game's most celebrated occasion in Australia – Boxing Day Test at the MCG. 

Interviewed upon learning of his elevation in place of Kasprowicz in the 12-man Test squad, Lee presciently said: "If I get the chance, I will be sending them down as fast as I can." 

"I have been chosen to bowl fast.  

"I'm certainly not going out there to work on my outswinger or bowl off-cutters.  

"I'm an attacking bowler, I am not one to sit back and wait for something to happen. 

"I go out and try and make things happen." 

Lee's opportunity to make an impact was hampered by Melbourne rain that meant only 93 overs were sent down across the first two days, throughout which Australia batted after India won the toss. 

It was only when Australia lost three quick wickets on the third morning that Lee, who had received his Baggy Green from former Australia fast bowler Ian Meckiff on Boxing Day, made his formal entry to the arena.

He scored a handy 27 at number 10 and later admitted he was more nervous walking out to bat than when thrown the ball with a handful of overs remaining before the day three lunch break.

But, true to his vow, he bowled fast and made things happen, almost instantly.

Why you needed to see it

There is little to exceed the expectation that accompanies the arrival of a genuinely fast bowler in Test cricket.

The hype surrounding strawberry-blonde bombshell Lee had been building steadily for years as his reputation grew, and prompted India coach Kapil Dev – perhaps in a show of ill-placed bravado – to call on MCG curators to prepare a fast, bouncy pitch for the Test. 

It took Lee just four deliveries to have the visitors' brainstrust reconsidering that request.

Having survived the new-ball probing of swing and seam duo McGrath and Fleming, India openers Sadagoppan Ramesh and V V S Laxman had taken the score to 11 when the cyclone hit. 

Lee's fourth delivery as a Test cricketer jagged back from a length to take the inside edge of Ramesh's speculative bat and clattered into the top of leg stump, prompting the fast bowler's celebration that would be seen a further 309 times in Tests across nine years.

Returning to the bowling crease after lunch, Lee snared perhaps the most impressive scalp of his maiden outing by having India's freshly installed number three Dravid caught behind.

While late swing netted him a first scalp, the second resulted from pure speed as the normally implacable 'Wall' cut skittishly at a delivery he might usually have let pass by and managed only a healthy outside edge. 

Lee's third wicket came late in the day via a ploy that would become something of a trademark throughout his subsequent career – an attempted inswinging yorker that fizzed past M S K Prasad's knee on the full and smashed into the bewildered batter's off stump.

Next ball, he repeated the dose to pin hapless India tailender Ajit Agarkar lbw for his second golden duck in as many innings ensuring Lee was in line to become just the second Australia men's bowler – after teammate Fleming – to capture a hat-trick on Test debut.  

His history-seeking delivery at fellow quick (now ICC match referee) Javagal Srinath completed a three-peat of searing yorkers but it pitched too wide of the right-hander's off-stump with Lee later conceding he had become "too excited". 

But two deliveries later he had his man as Srinath fended a fearsome short ball limply to second slip to complete a triple-wicket over and a five-wicket haul for the beaming debutant who had consistently clocked around 150kph during the day. 

The MCG stood in prolonged applause as Lee retrieved his jumper and cap at over's end, most of them unaware they had just witnessed the first five-for on debut for Australia at the ground since Bob McLeod more than a century earlier (1892). 

However, everyone present that day knew they had witnessed the arrival of a generational talent and a major Australia strike weapon for years to come.

Who might repeat history:

Australia's selectors have shown a penchant for unleashing previously unseen pace bowlers at the MCG even though it's not renowned as a speedsters' surface. 

Over the past 30 years, in addition to Lee the quicks to have received Baggy Green Caps at Test cricket's birthplace have been Fleming (1994-95), Matthew Nicholson (1998-99), Jackson Bird (2012-13) and Scott Boland (2021-22). 

However, the only uncapped fast-bowling option in Australia's 15-man squad named for this summer's Boxing Day Test is allrounder Beau Webster, who has been with the side since Adelaide as a cover for Mitch Marsh.

Webster, who was last season's Sheffield Shield player of the year, has continued to press his case for a Test debut with consistent all-round returns.

If it was Lee's sheer speed that left India dumbfounded 25 years ago, it could be Webster's rare ability to bowl both medium pace and off-spin that could play a trick or make an impact just by providing an extra option to skipper Pat Cummins.

A more likely debut could, however, come from the young opening batter Sam Konstas. The 19-year-old from Lee's home state of NSW has been brought into the squad in place of Nathan McSweeney, who faced the new ball in the first three Tests.

The reason given for Konstas' inclusion is similar to what brought Lee into the side – to "throw something different" at India, explained men's selection chair George Bailey. If the youngster's recent record-breaking 20-ball half century on BBL debut is anything to go by, he could provide that destructive start Australia are looking for.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal