There’s nothing quite like watching old records getting broken. And if that happens in a Test match like the one we witnessed at Gabba, what more can one ask for?
1. Last time Australia lost at the Gabba was in 1988 to the mighty West Indies. They remained unbeaten for 31 Tests over 32 years. Karachi was the only venue apart from this to witness a longer streak than this. Pakistan remained undefeated there for 34 Tests between 1955 and 2000. There are only three previous instances of a team losing the first Test of a series and then coming back to beat Australia in Australia (England in 1882-83, 1911-12, and 1954-55).
2. Talking about the Test encounters between Australia and India in Brisbane, Indians had played six matches before 2021. They had lost five of them with a solitary draw in 2003. With this victory in Brisbane, Indians have registered victories in all five Australian venues where they have played two or more Test matches. They have four wins at Melbourne Cricket Ground, two at Adelaide, one at Sydney Cricket Ground, one at WACA Perth, and one at Gabba.
3. Indians have won two series Down Under. Among the subcontinent teams, only India have won a series in Australia. Moreover, the Indian cricket team is the only fourth visiting team to have sealed consecutive Test series wins in Australia (2018-19 and 2020-21). England, West Indies, and South Africa are the other nations to have achieved the feat.
4. Cheteshwar Pujara faced 928 balls in this Test series, the fifth-most by a visiting batsman in Australia in four or fewer Tests. Pujara also recorded his slowest fifty in the second innings and he took 196 balls. Pujara is the only Indian now with the most 200+ ball innings against Australia. He has done it nine times so far followed by Sunil Gavaskar (8), Tendulkar (7), and Virat Kohli (6). In his three tours of Australia, Pujara has scored 993 Test runs in 2657 balls in 21 innings.
5. Only nine players have led in five or more Tests without losing one and Ajinkya Rahane is the only Indian among them. Rahane has captained the Indian cricket team in five matches, registered four wins and one draw. He has led the team against Australia four times including three matches of this series.
6. Washington Sundar became only the fifth Indian to score fifty on debut Test at 7th position. In the history of the Indian cricket team, Washington Sundar is also only the second player to score a half-century after taking three wickets in the first innings of his debut Test match with the former being Dattu Phadkar (1947).
7. Mohammed Siraj became the fifth Indian bowler to have recorded a 5-wicket haul in Brisbane. The elite list includes Erapalli Prasanna (6/104 in 1968), Bishan Singh Bedi (5/55 in 1977), Madan Lal (5/72 in 1977), and Zaheer Khan (5/95 in 2003). Siraj took five wickets for 73 runs and helped India to bowl out Australia in both innings of a Test match only for the third time in Brisbane after 1968 and 1977.
8. The man-of-the-match Rishabh Pant’s 89* is the second-highest score by a wicketkeeper in a fourth-innings chase. Adam Gilchrist is the only one ahead of Pant; he scored an unbeaten 149 against Pakistan at Hobart. Pant now averages 87 in the fourth innings of a Test. He also became the fastest Indian to reach 1000 Test runs (27 innings). Rishabh Pant is the only Indian wicketkeeper with three 50+ scores in Test matches in Australia.
9. Interestingly, Australians are topping all possible charts of the series. Marnus Labuschagne scored the most runs (426) in the series, followed by Steve Smith (313), Pant (274), Pujara (271), Rahane (268). Pat Cummins claimed the most number of wickets (23) in the series followed by Josh Hazlewood (17) and Indian bowler Mohammed Siraj (13). The highest individual score was registered by Smith (131), best bowling in a match came from Cummins (7/69), most dismissals were recorded by Tim Paine (17).
10. India used 20 players in the series – the most by any team in an away series. No wonder, the visiting team saw several debutants. Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, and Sundar have a combined experience of nine Test matches whereas the Australian bowling attack has an overall experience of playing more than 250 Test matches.