The Australian cricket team toured India from 9 October to 10 November 2008 and played four test matches, for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. During the second test match Sachin Tendulkar became the first person to make 12,000 runs in Test cricket breaking Brian Lara's record of 11,953 runs. Sachin described "It is definitely the biggest achievement in 19 years of my career" on the day he achieved the record. India's 320 run victory in the second test match was also their biggest win against Australia in terms of runs, eclipsing the 222-run victory that came in Melbourne in 1977 and their biggest test win ever in terms of runs. In the first innings of the third test match, Gautam Gambhir and V. V. S. Laxman became the first Indian players to both score a double century in a test innings. This series also witnessed the last tests of two Indian cricketers – Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly.

Security concerns and controversy before the tour

Before the Australian cricket team was scheduled to tour India and play a series of Test matches, one-day internationals and Twenty20 matches, it was doubtful if the Australian cricket team would tour India after the terror attacks in Delhi and the press briefing given by India's National Security Advisor M. K. Narayan that raised issues of security concern in the minds of Australia's cricketers.

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is a Test cricket series, played between India and Australia. It has witnessed some of the most competitive Test series played in recent years, with results usually either being a narrow win for one of the sides or a closely fought draw. It is currently played via the International Cricket Council's future tours program, with varying lengths of time between matches. If the series is drawn, then the country holding the trophy retains it. The series is named after Australia's Allan Border and India's Sunil Gavaskar, who both scored over 10,000 Test runs in their career and captained their respective teams and were the original world record holders for most runs scored in Test match cricket.

The first Border–Gavaskar Trophy series was played in India the 1996–97 season and was won by the hosts 1–0. Australia won the trophy for the first time in the 1999–00 season at home where they defeated India 3-0. Since then, the trophy has alternated between both the teams. Australia's failure to win the Border–Gavaskar Trophy in India led to Steve Waugh dubbing the Indian tour as the "Final Frontier" for the Australian team. In 2004–05, Australia defeated India 2–1 in India. Australia's usual captain, Ricky Ponting, did not play in the winning matches due to injury and Adam Gilchrist instead captained the winning sides. In the 2008–09 edition, India defeated Australia 2–0 in a four match series in India to regain the trophy. In 2010 India retained the trophy by winning the two match series 2–0. Australia won the 2011–12 series 4-0, and regained the trophy for the first time since 2007–08. India returned the favour in the 2013 series by completing a 4–0 "whitewash" of Australia to regain the trophy, before losing it to the current champions Australia in the most recent 2014-15 series with a 2-0 defeat.