The greatest tribute to India, following their soul-stirring series win at the Gabba, came from their harshest critic Michael Vaughan, who had predicted a 4-0 whitewash after their crushing defeat in Adelaide.
“Wow .. That has to go down as one of the greatest if not the greatest Test victory of all time !! Egg on my face over here in the UK.." the former England skipper tweeted, soon after Rishabh Pant scored the winning runs to seal India’s 2-1 triumph on Tuesday, their second successive series win Down Under.
Victory tastes sweeter when you prove the naysayers wrong. There were plenty like Vaughan who wrote India off after they had crashed to 36 all out in the opening Test. Australia can be a difficult place for any visiting team. It’s tough to bounce back from a fighting loss, let alone a hammering of the sort India suffered. But this team showed it’s made of a different fibre.
Few teams touring Australia have faced as many obstacles as India did, and still come out on top. If a morale-shattering defeat at the start of the skirmishes and the absence of their regular captain-cum-best batsman for the remainder of the tour wasn’t bad enough, India kept losing one key player after another all the way through. Yet, like a battered mixed martial artiste refusing to back down, they kept coming up with counter-punches. So ravaged were Ajinkya Rahane’s India by injuries that they had to blood three designated ‘net bowlers’ as the series unfolded.
On the eve of the opening game, Kohli said he represented the “new India” which wants to take on “challenges” and move forward with “optimism and positivity”.
The skipper wasn’t around to put these words into practice, but a beleaguered yet indefatigable bunch scripted a fairytale win to lend great weight to his words.
Led by a captain who was a picture of poise and patience, India delivered a sucker punch in Melbourne to draw level in what was easily one of their greatest comeback wins. They moved to Sydney, where off-field distractions threatened to derail their campaign. In another show of courage and character, they pulled off a draw for the ages which, snatched from the clutches of defeat, felt as satisfying as victory in Melbourne. By the time of the decider in Brisbane, they had lost the services of seven first-choice players who all had a role in their revival.
At the Gabba, where they had never won previously, India had to hand two debuts, besides playing with three others who had made their debuts on this tour. Only three from the first Test were part of the final game.
Nothing reflected the faith and fight in this team better than the Washington Sundar-Shardul Thakur partnership in the first innings, and a scarcely believable final-day chase on a tricky Gabba surface. The victory was fashioned by the grit of Sundar and Shardul, the exuberance of Shubman Gill, the obduracy of Cheteshwar Pujara and the belligerence of Pant, reiterating that the whole is always greater than the sum of its parts.