Desperate for retaining the strike, Rishabh Pant drives one through the mid off region and ran probably the quickest runs of his life. By the time he completes a double and turns back for the third, the ball slowly rolls past the boundary line, which lets India achieve the unthinkable, especially after being bowled out for 36 exactly a month ago.
India’s remarkable triumph in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy is probably the greatest underdog story ever in the history of this sport. Words are not enough to describe what they have pulled off in this series, especially at Gabba, which has been Australia’s fortress for 32 years. But not anymore as Ajinkya Rahane’s boys breach it with a second-string batting line-up and a bowling attack which primarily consists of net bowlers.
It has been an exhibition of grit, perseverance, resilience, determination and of course, fearlessness.
A frame for the history books! #AUSvIND #TeamIndia #Gabba #Pant #Pujara #cricketnews pic.twitter.com/55f3xe4hLU
— Cricket News (@cricketnews_com) January 19, 2021
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In their last home summer, following a comprehensive victory against Pakistan at Gabba, Australian skipper Tim Paine challenged the Indian team to start this edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at this venue. Even during the last Sydney Test he taunted Ravichandran Ashwin to come to Gabba and bat (read that as face the chin-music). Clearly, this ground situated in the suburbs of Brisbane has long been a part of Aussie arrogance.
When the Indian team did arrive here, as many as four of their first-choice players from an already depleted side were ruled out from this series-decider. To complete their quota of 11 players, the visitors had to add T Natarajan and Washington Sundar in their Test squad. The duo, who were initially with the team as net bowlers, made their debut and played alongside Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini and Mohammed Siraj who had collective experience of four Test matches previously.
However, even with this rookie bowling attack India not only just took 20 wickets in the game, people like Sundar and Thakur came up with crucial contributions with bat in hand as well. In fact, their resilient seventh wicket stand of 123 in the first innings was the turning point of this Test after Australia won the toss and scored 369 while batting first.
After narrowing down the first-innings deficit to just 30 odd runs, the visitors then bowled the Aussies out for less than 300, courtesy to the efforts of Siraj and Thakur. Quite remarkably, throughout this Test whenever it seemed Australia were running away with the game, someone from the Indian camp was ready with a counterpunch.
13 wickets in the series and a fifer to wrap it up.
What a debut series it has been for Mohammed Siraj! #AUSvsIND #TeamIndia #Siraj #cricketnews pic.twitter.com/SrKjkLIBKp— Cricket News (@cricketnews_com) January 18, 2021
“Guys like Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj showed how good their temperament is, ” says the skipper Rahane in the post-match presentations. “Washington Sundar was a net bowler. Natarajan was a net bowler. He [Natarajan] played one-day cricket, then T20 cricket, and got his Test debut here. And the way Washington Sundar batted, it seemed that he was a veteran of 20 Tests. The kind of temperament he showed in his partnership with Shardul Thakur…a thing to mention about Shardul, he’s been through the hard grind of First-Class cricket, but he got a chance here, and he grabbed his opportunity with both hands.”
Meanwhile, given a target of 328 runs to chase on Day 5, India entered the final day’s contest with some uncertainty surrounding the weather. With a prediction of a thunderstorm in the latter half of the day, the gameplan was to play normal cricket, at least in the first hour or so. However, they lost the important wicket of Rohit Sharma pretty which gave the Aussie attack an early boost.
The rain, meanwhile, did stay away and it was young Shubman Gill, who kept the chase alive for the visitors with some swashbuckling stroke-play. When Gill failed, just nine short of what would have been an incredible maiden Test hundred, captain Rahane took the initiative of being the aggressor.
At the other end Cheteshwar Pujara anchored the innings as he always does. On a fifth day pitch he took multiple blows on the body but stood his ground. He played out 211 deliveries for his 56 – an innings which was India’s insurance policy in the context of the game and the series.
“When I went in (to) bat, the conversation between me and [Cheteshwar] Pujara was for Puji to bat normal, but I wanted to play with intent and if we get close to the total, then Rishabh and Mayank can get the total for us. It was all about the intent out there after lunch. Credit to Pujara for the way he batted, with the mental pressure. Washington Sundar was really good at the end,” Rahane says while talking about India’s approach in this run-chase.
However, the most special knock of the match came from Pant, who produced arguably the most sensational innings in recent years (only Ben Stokes’ innings at Leeds during the last Ashes series can come close to this). The 22-year old wicketkeeper-batsman showed immense maturity and mental toughness in decision making under extreme pressure. Perhaps with this unbeaten 139-ball 89, Pant shows his critics the fine differences between being reckless and fearless.
It was Pant’s counterattack, which put Paine and Australia on the back foot. And as they went into the run-saving mode, the task became far less complicated for Pant and his colleagues.
Finally, after hitting the most important boundary of his life, which provided the Indian fans a memory of a lifetime, the emotions came rushing out in waves.
From an young, inexperienced yet incredible Indian team this has been a statement of the highest order.