When India left home for their tour of Australia even Nostradamus wouldn't of been able to predict the chain of events that were to eventually lead to India claiming a 2-1 win in The Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
What we did know was that the two teams were pretty evenly matched but Australia would be favourites due to being at home, and that India Captain Virat Kohli would return home for the birth of his first child following the opening day-night Test in Adelaide. Ishant Sharma who had suffered an abdominal tear during The Dream IPL would not make the tour.
In my previous article I wrote about two of India's up and coming's stars Rishabh Pant & Shubman Gill and their performances in the last Test of the series. However in Adelaide things went less well for another of their protégées, Prithvi Shaw. Before the opening Test Shaw had played 4 Tests, registering two 50's and a maiden Test 100. Things didn't go according to plan for Shaw or India in Adelaide as he bagged a pair, bowled in both in innings, by Starc & Cummins. India were humiliated as Australia bowled them out for just 36 in their 2nd Innings with not a single batsman making double figures. The last ball of the match saw Mohammed Shami take a thunderous blow to the arm from a Pat Cummins delivery and retire hurt. Like Kohli and Shami, Shaw would not play again in the series, but he is just 19 years old and his time will undoubtedly come again.
India pulled off one of the great bounce back wins in the 2nd Test at the MCG. Lead brilliantly by stand in Captain Ajinkya Rahane, who scored a magnificent 112 in their 1st Innings. The win came at a cost for India though as Umesh Yadav limped off with a calf problem, three balls into his fourth over of Australia's 2nd innings. Shubman Gill however was starting to make a name for himself to those who don't follow the IPL with scores of 45 & 35* on Test debut as India took the match by 8 wickets and levelled the series.
Worse was to follow before the 3rd Test had even begun as India lost opening batsman KL Rahul when he suffered a broken hand whilst batting in the nets. Rahul had not featured in the opening two Tests and would now not feature in the last two either.
India went on to produce one of the great rear-guard actions at the SCG, batting out 131 overs to secure a draw. An unlikely win had been on the cards until Hanuma Vihari pulled a hamstring whilst on 12, but unable to run he blocked like his life depended on it finishing 23* from 161 balls as he and Ravi Ashwin put on 62 to defy the Aussies. Ravi Jadeja suffered a broken and dislocated thumb in India's 1st Innings after being hit bit a short ball from Mitchell Starc and would only of batted 2nd time around if the match depended on it. Rishabh Pant had also taken a nasty blow to the forearm batting in the 1st Innings and although he carried on and made a fine 97 he was unable to keep wicket 2nd time around with Wriddhiman Saha taking the gloves.
Before the deciding Test at Australia's fortress The Gabba, Jasprit Bumrah the spearhead of India's pace attack was ruled out with an abdominal strain, and Ravi Ashwin also went down with a back problem. You now started to wonder in India had taken enough players on tour to field a side for the last test given their injury problems.
They had, just. Mohammed Siraj would lead the fast bowling attack in the just his 3rd Test, and his new ball partner would be Thangarusu Natajaran who had been taken on tour as a net bowler. They would be backed up by Navdeep Saini who had debuted in the 3rd Test at Sydney & Shardul Thakur who had one previous test to his name back in 2018. Washington Sundar would lead the spin attack on debut whilst Mayank Agarwal normally an opening batsman would bat at 5, although Pant would move up to 5 in their 2nd Innings.
Siraj would end the match with a maiden 5 wicket haul, Thakur picked up 4 in the 2nd innings to go with 3 in the first. Sundar took 3 in the first innings including Steve Smith for his maiden Test match wicket. With India 186-6 in their 1st innings in reply to Australia's 369, the tourists were in trouble. However Sundar and Thakur picked of course for their bowling went on the attack scoring 62 & 67 respectively and leading India to a score of 336 just 33 behind. Australia made 294 second time around to set India an improbable 328 to win on a pitch offering plenty of variable bounce.
Shubman Gill who had made a maiden test 50 at the SCG went on the attack despite the early loss of Rohit Sharma, making a Test best 91. Che Pujara did his thing making 56 from 211 deliveries before the other young star Rishabh Pant finished the game and the series with 89* to add to the 97 he made at the SCG. Sundar chipped in with a handy 22 as well.
The whole point of this is of course that India boast an embarrassment of riches when it comes to cricketing talent. Whilst India have always had great Batsman I grew up watching the likes of Mohammed Azhararuddin, Kapil Dev, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and of course Sachin Tendulkar and latterly Virat Kohli.
In the spin department it was Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh and now Ravi Ashwin & Ravi Jadeja. Washington Sundar has now firmly thrown his hat into the ring too. India now also have a successor to the great MS Dhoni in Rishabh Pant.
Where this Indian Team differs with teams of the past is with the fast bowlers, as a young man I watched Indian touring teams turn up in England with Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad and would call for another seamer if one of those went down injured and Ganguly would back them up with some medium pace you would be more accustomed to facing in club cricket. Nowadays they seem to have a conveyer belt of fast bowlers, and these guys are genuinely quick compared to the likes of Srinath and Prasad.
Credit must go to the BCCI for the creation of the IPL. When India's young stars are pushed into the Test or ODI arena there is no fear of facing or bowling to the best in the world. These young men have already smacked the best in the world to all corners or knocked over the likes of Steve Smith and David Warner.
Whilst the Australian selector's face some tricky selection dilemma's ahead of their tour to South Africa, India's selectors have the the more enviable task of picking from the plethora of riches at their disposal, and for every Shubman Gill or Rishabh Pant there is a Sanju Samson or a Ishan Kishan waiting in the wings. Prithvi Shaw may count himself unlucky to have been left out of India's 18 man squad for the first 2 Tests against England, but his time will come and he won't be the only one. The future of Indian cricket has in my opinion never looked brighter.
India like most cricketing nations have tried the foreign coach idea, John Wright, Greg Chappell, Gary Kirsten & Duncan Fletcher all had spells in charge with varying degrees of success. Come 2015 they decided to look closer to home and Ravi Shastri took charge although he only stayed in charge for around a year. They then turned to legendary former leg spinner Anil Kumble but like Shastri before him he came and went in around 12 months. In July 2017 they re-appointed Shastri as Coach, not only is he getting performances from the established senior players in the squad, the young guns are now firing too. And as this series down under has shown you right off this Indian team at your peril. This lot do not just give in and fold when the chips are down, Shastri has instilled a real fighting spirit into his charges. His contract is due to finish after the 2021 T20 World Cup but I wouldn't bet against it being extended again.
India is of course a cricket mad country with a population of around 1.5BN that they should have so much talent should be of little surprise. However they also now seem to have a system that produces and will keep producing real talent, I believe they are destined to dominate the rankings for some time to come and it will need some team to knock them from their perch!
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| The Victorious Indian Squad |
Jan 24 2021
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