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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-01-19 08:39:51

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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

India won the last Test at Brisbane and won the series 2-1 against Australia. When the team had got out for 36 runs in the second innings of the first Test, no one would have thought that it will fight back in such spectacular fashion. There were many reasons for that. India's captain and its best batsman Virat Kohli was returning after that Test on a paternity leave. Rohit Sharma's participation in the second Test was doubtful. There was a new captain helming the team. The opening pair was not delivering. Australia were full strength with Steve Smith and David Warner back in the team. Yet, braving all odds, India went on to win the second Test. Then they were hit by injuries. They could not field the first choice team in the third Test and fielded a totally new-look team full of inexperienced youngsters at Brisbane. Still, throughout the rest of the series, it was Australia who were on the back foot as India never gave up.

The way the youngsters rose to the occasion in the final Test is how fairy tales unfold. The likes of Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Shubman Gill, T Natarajan, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini took on the might of Australia and delivered a knockout punch to them. The final Test at Brisbane will be studied for a long time by the Australians to discover where they went wrong. The best bowling attack in the world came a cropper against an inexperienced Indian lineup and allowed them to run away with the match. Ricky Ponting had even said on the fourth day that even if India manages to draw the game it would be a loss for Australia. Indian did one better and won the game.

Consider the facts - Australia had not lost at the Gabba for a long time. It won the toss and elected to bat on a good batting pitch. The Indian bowlers had little experience of Test cricket and they were bowling against Steve Smith and company. Yet they restricted the Aussies to a moderate score of 369. Natarajan, Thakur and Sundar took three wickets each. When India batted, and were reduced to 186/6, the old fears of failing overseas returned. But no one had reckoned with the spirited youngsters in the team. The unlikely pair of Sundar and Thakur combined to stitch together a 123-run partnership for the 7^th wicket and ensured that the Australians got a lead of just 33 runs.

When the Aussies batted a second time, Mohammed Siraj and Thakur got into the act. Siraj was especially brilliant in taking 5/73 and bowling the Australians out for just 294, leaving India to get 327 runs for a historic win. The wicket was full of cracks and the Aussies were intent on beating India. They tried all their tricks, including peppering Cheteshwar Pujara with well-directed bouncers that hit him on his body, but to no avail. First Shubman Gill played an outstanding knock for 91 runs but got out at the wrong time. Then Rishabh Pant showed amazing temperament (no one doubts his batting talent, but he gets carried away at times) and paced his innings excellently to score 89 not out. This was one of the most exciting and important non-century innings for a winning cause in recent times. Pant took India home with just a few deliveries remaining.

This win - in fact the entire series from the second Test onwards - was a total team effort. The way the youngsters stood up to be counted and backed each other was excellent. Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur are the real find of this series. This writeup will be incomplete if one does not praise Ajinkye Rahane's excellent captaincy. The way he handled the youngsters was a lesson in how to marshal one's troops. The unassuming Rahane showed that he can rise to the occasion when the time comes. India will now have a problem of plenty when they sit down to choose the playing eleven for Tests. How can you leave out well performing youngsters? But that is a happy situation and one is sure Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri will deal with it when the time comes. For the moment though, let us savour the glory these youngsters have brought to the nation.