Thunder down under

Kohli's team shows it can dominate away from India

It has been a momentous tour for the men in blue, who have traditionally been formidable at home and fragile abroad, as they completed an unprecedented display across formats against the Australian cricket team. Former Australian captain Michael Clarke admitted that even the final scoreline — a 2-1 victory in Tests, 2-1 victory in ODI and a drawn (1-1) T-20 series — did not capture the extent to which India dominated the hosts. Rain probably saved the Aussies from losing the T-20 series, and from losing the Tests by an even higher margin (3-1). Australia being dwarfed like this — game after game, format after format — is unheard of. Indeed, this is the first Indian team to have won a Test series in Australia, which had lost at home just six times in the past 30 years. Even India’s golden generation of batting legends featuring the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman and Virender Sehwag and led by the fearless Sourav Ganguly could not clinch the deal in Australia.

What makes India’s heroics in Australia all the more remarkable is the fact that exactly a year ago when the Virat Kohli-led team started its away tours with the first Test in Cape Town, there weren’t many who gave them much of a chance. Indeed, with back-to-back away tours in South Africa, England, and Australia lined up, Kohli’s very future as Test captain was at stake. In fact, Kohli took over from M S Dhoni when the team lost one away series after another despite having a stellar record back home. Paper tigers, flat-track bullies etc. were beginning to look like well-deserved epithets. To be sure, after losing the first two Tests (and with that the series) in South Africa, many of those fears were reinforced. While India had some promising fast bowlers especially with Jaspreet Bumrah’s debut, it was its inconsistent and unsettled batting that was the main reason for failure. In three Tests in South Africa, Indian batters managed to cross the 300-run mark just once. However, India did show resilience and not only managed to win the last Test but also beat the Proteas in the ODIs and T-20s.

Yet, by the time India reached England, its claim as the world’s number one Test side sounded hollow. Indeed, poor team selection and complete lack of application in batting meant that India had no room to hide in the five-Test series. Eventually, India was humiliated with a 1-4 loss against an English side that struggled to bat itself. By the end of the series, Coach Ravi Shastri was beginning to sound preposterous with claims that Kohli’s team was the best to tour England in the past 15 years. Yet, even in the face of receding support, Shastri maintained that in this team “there is no negative bone in the body” and that it will endeavour to be the best travelling side of the world. 

To be sure, by the time India reached Brisbane in November last year for the first T-20, India had a wide array of effective bowlers to choose from — both in the fast and spin categories. Moreover, Australia was struggling to come to terms with the eviction of their captain (Steven Smith) and vice-captain (David Warner), who were also their batting backbone, in the wake of the Sandpaper-gate episode. The only thing missing for India was a consistent batting order. And this is where Cheteshwar Pujara and new entrants such as Mayank Agarwal and Rishabh Pant stepped up to show they belonged. Led by indefatigable Kohli, India out-batted and out-bowled the Aussies in their own backyard. The team now travels to New Zealand and even though they only play ODIs and T-20s, it should hopefully do an encore and prove that its domination in Australia wasn’t just a one-off miracle.