Humiliated and thrashed within three days in the opening Test match at Adelaide, the Indian cricket team showed incredible character to bounce back with a lion-hearted triumph. The tantalizing finish which saw strike rates and heart rates constantly fluctuating will be long remembered for the valour, grit and the mental toughness shown by a relatively raw Indian team.
Every win is significant, but this series win will go down in the annals of history for the testing conditions under which it was achieved. After the disastrous opening Test, the worries for India were clearly showing. Captain Virat Kohli had returned home on paternity leave, Rohit Sharma could not make it to the second Test, and the fitness of some top players remained uncertain. The only option was to go with backups. The writing was on the wall. Senior Australian cricketers of the likes of Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Mark Waugh and Michael Vaughan not only under-rated the Indian team but predicted a 4-0 whitewash.
India not only shrugged off the morale-shattering 36 all out score in the first Test but went on to convincingly win the second Test at Melbourne, battled on to fight for a draw in the third and pulled off a heroic win in the fourth.
The third Test was a testimony to the pain which the team endured. A limping Hanuma Vihari holding on to one end, an elbow-hit Rishab Pant coming back and playing a swashbuckling knock which brought the team within sniffing distance of victory, Ravichandran Ashwin playing the knock of his life with painkillers after acute back spasms, Jasprit Bumrah with an abdominal strain and Ravindra Jadeja a thumb fracture standing up despite the odds. These were signs of resilience and a fighting spirit that won hearts.
The eight fresh faces, probably new to the international stage, played their part to perfection, rising to the occasion by showing impeccable grit and character to script this memorable win. The seasoned Cheteshwar Pujara will remain a symbol of a fighter for putting his body on the line for Indian cricket and standing resolute to the vicious Aussie attack despite being hit all over, including a knock on the helmet.
The great Indian win has rebranded Test cricket and showed to the world that any opposition, no matter how weak, cannot be underestimated. It sent out a message to the cricketing world that you need men of steel and intense passion for the game to get you home. Moreover, there will be crucial lessons for Australians. Riding high after their first Test win, the complacency was showing, and the wobbly-looking Indian team was underestimated. However, all the Australian experience, firepower, sledging, racial abuses and mind games couldn't prevail over a lion-hearted approach of Indians.
This series will signal a paradigm shift for a team that was banking heavily on captain Virat Kohli. The vacuum may no longer be felt. Finally, and most importantly, the victory will rekindle hopes for the thousands of budding cricketers who are silently going through their paces back home, not knowing where their cricketing journey would take them.
