sourav ganguly's captaincy heralded a new era in indian cricket. it began in the famous series against australia in 2001, when steve waugh's strong team was defeated 2-1 in a test series after having taken a 1-0 lead at mumbai. the series is best known for a remarkable turnaround by the indian team in the kolkata test, when vvs laxman, rahul dravid and harbhajan singh's performance took india to victory after they had followed on. this series marked a turning point in the indian team's fortunes, and provided the team with the boost they dearly needed. this was followed by stellar performances by the team when playing abroad, with test victories coming in zimbabwe, sri lanka, west indies, england, australia, and a famous series victory against arch-rivals pakistan in 2004. the series in england in 2002 is billed as rahul dravid's series, as he became the top scorer for the indians, with centuries coming at trent bridge in nottingham, headingley in leeds and a famous 217 at the oval in london. this was followed by a sensational win in australia at adelaide in 2003, where dravid, vvs laxman and ajit agarkar scripted a come-from-behind victory after the team had conceded 556 runs in the first innings. the series win in pakistan that followed was marked by virender sehwag becoming the first indian to score a triple century in test cricket. along with sehwag, players like yuvraj singh and mohammed kaif emerged, making the indian batting order one of the strongest in the world in both forms of the game*. their performances helped reduced india's dependence on their top guns in one-day cricket, and a 7-batsman policy contributed to india's successes in the limited-overs game, culminating in their reaching the final of the 2003 cricket world cup. in the bowling department, india unearthed a plethora of fast-bowling talent, with zaheer khan, ashish nehra, and later irfan pathan and l balaji leading the pack. the veteran anil kumble became the highest wicket-taker for india after surpassing kapil dev, and also passed the 500-mark in march 2006. his bowling performances abroad improved considerably, and he played a major part in india's overseas performances in england, australia and pakistan. harbhajan singh also provided him great company in the spin department, and at home the two bowling in tandem became a familiar sight.