With the final day of this series washed out without a ball being bowled – by the lightest and most unassuming drizzle probably ever seen near a cricket field – India completed their first ever Test series victory in Australia with a 2-1 victory margin. It is a significant and game-changing milestone for the cricketing nation, and the unabashed joyous scenes that broke out in the dressing room when the match was officially called off shows that they are aware of just how important it is. 71 years of touring Australia against teams that varied from average to superhuman finally saw them achieve this moment. Much like Australia’s victory in India in 2004, their first in India since 1969, it was a great moment for the history and future of cricket in the same instance.
Australia has been completely outplayed, and yet did not lack chances to change the result. On the first morning of the 1st Test in Adelaide Australia had India 4/41 with Virat Kohli back in the shed. Even at 5/86 or 6/127, Australia should have had India out for many less than 200. It is difficult to assess whether or not that could have been transferred to a victory given the way their top order collapsed in their own first innings, but the final losing margin of just 31 runs suggests that they probably should have won that match if they had not allowed Pujara to coax the tail along. In Melbourne too, despite India batting for two days for 7/443, Australia had the chance to bat time and get much closer to the Indian first innings than the 151 they managed. On the other side of the coin, if only India had played either Jadeja or Kuldeep in Perth rather than four fast bowlers, they could well have gone close to winning this series 4-0.
India had plenty of standouts, Pujara and Bumrah the outstanding stars. Nut they received great support from young Agarwal, Pant, Shami and Jadeja while Kohli, Rahane, Ishant and Vihari hardly embarrassed themselves, along with Ashwin who was so influential at Adelaide and then injured for the remainder of the series. Australia, with no century makers for the whole series, something that hasn’t happened for about a thousand years, and barely a ripple on the wicket taking front, can take few positives out of the series. It is fine to suggest that they have found a promising opener in Marcus Harris and that Travis Head played wonderfully well except when he threw his own wicket away in five of his seven innings when the team needed him to go on and make the match defining innings. It is great to laud the late order batting of Pat Cummins as his top order failed and that his bowling in Melbourne was fast and furious. And it is also fair to applaud the beautiful clean wicket-keeping of skipper Tim Paine who retained dignity and positivity throughout even as his team failed to make much impression on their visitors. But there isn’t much to be excited about when you look at the series as a whole rather than just selected highlights.
Congratulations to India and their victory which is very much deserved. It will be interesting to see how they go now that the new Future Tours Program is in place, and that they must play three series away from home every two years, rather than the way the BCCI has structured their recent tours by ensuring they tour South Africa, England and Australia in a 12 month period, and then play at home almost exclusively for a three year stretch. What this tour proved is that they have the players to adapt to any conditions, which should ensure they are better prepared in the future and indeed better prepared to retain their #1 Test ranking for some time to come.
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