India toured and played Australia for the first time in 1947. Lala Amarnath’s side, brave as it was, was outclassed by Sir Don Bradman’s team, losing 4-0 in a five-match series. It would take 11 more tours, a total of 48 Test matches over more than 70 years (including 2018-19), for India to get its hands on a Test series win Down Under. On January 7, 2019, when Virat Kohli lifted the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a rain-washed final day in Sidney, India scaled one of its final frontiers in cricket.
This series was an important milestone for a team that had always struggled outside the subcontinent. Even after becoming a near-invincible force at home, India failed to translate those performances to trickier conditions in SENA countries (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia). Going into the tour, in 44 Test matches against Australia in Australia, India had lost 28 and drawn 11, winning only five.
Conventional wisdom suggested that Indian batters were technically and mentally wanting in more pace-friendly conditions and Indian bowlers needed the dust-bowls of Chepauk or Kotla to work their magic. India’s convincing series win in Australia (2-1) ended this discussion, once and for all. As India’s batters batted the Aussies to oblivion, India’s fitter, faster pace attack ended a few careers.
An Australian team in turmoil
One of the reasons why this series is often retrospectively undervalued is because of the turmoil that the Australian team was in at the time. “Sandpaper-Gate” had rocked the Test side earlier in 2018, with two of Australia’s best batters, Steve Smith and David Warner serving lengthy bans in its aftermath. Consequently, there was a massive hole in the Australian top order and a leadership vacuum which then-perceived “good guy” Tim Paine was tasked to fill. Paine was given the captaincy not because of his middling Test record, but because of his affable nature that Cricket Australia hoped would be good for the team’s image.
The batting comprised a debutant Marcus Harris, a struggling Aaron Finch, relatively inexperienced players like Travis Head and Peter Handscomb, and the veteran Shaun Marsh. The star batter was Usman Khawaja, though he did not live up to expectations. Marnus Labuschagne made his debut as a leg-spinning all rounder during the series. Simply put, the Australian batting lineup was weaker than it ever had been. During the series, none of the Aussie batters averaged over 35.
But Australia still fielded an all-time-great bowling attack, especially in home conditions. The trio of Mitch Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood was as potent as any bowling trio has ever been. Add to that, Nathan Lyon, who had mastered the art of off-spin in unforgiving Australian conditions, chugging to over 450 Test wickets in the process. Australia’s bowling arsenal meant that even with its batting deficiencies, it would be a formidable team to beat at home.
An Indian team with Virat Kohli’s stamp
At his peak, Virat Kohli was not just the best cricketer in the world, he was also one of its best athletes. A cricketer who had worked on his fitness and physical conditioning like no other (especially in India), ever since he took over captaincy of the Test team from Dhoni in 2014, he tried to transform the Indian team in his own image.
Fitness was foremost, with players having to be at peak condition to even be in contention. Also crucial was an aggressive, “winning mentality” – while this phrase has long become a cliche, under Kohli’s captaincy, the Indian team was built to go hard for a win, or lose the game fighting.
A pace bowling revolution
The most profound impact that this had was on Indian fast bowlers. Long considered to be India’s achilles heel in SENA countries, quality fast bowlers (or the lack thereof) had determined India’s destiny in past series.
Remember Pankaj Singh? The star of India’s domestic circuit was called up for India’s tour to England in 2014. What followed was possibly the worst bowling performance by a frontline bowler in the history of Test cricket. In the two matches he played in England, he managed to take only two wickets at an average of 146. The point being that India’s fast bowling talent pool was long considered to be sub-par to consistently win Test matches abroad.
Furthermore, even talented bowlers were often injured and seemed to lose pace as soon as they hit their first hurdles in international cricket. Case in point, Munaf Patel. When he entered the cricketing scene in around 2003, he was regarded as one of the fastest bowlers India has ever produced. However, injuries took a toll and by the time he retired, he was nothing more than a canny medium pacer seldom touching 135 kmph.
Under Kohli’s captaincy and Ravi Shastri’s able man management, things fundamentally changed. Kohli’s obsession with fitness brought the best out of the likes of Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma (who had nothing sort of a Renaissance of his own) and Umesh Yadav. Also, his attraction towards pace bowling meant that he backed his bowlers to the hilt.
In Australia, Indian pacers outbowled their Australian counterparts, often bowling faster, hitting consistent lines and lengths, and providing no respite to a weakened batting lineup. The 2018-19 series was also the coming of age of another Indian superstar.
Jasprit Bumrah, in a class of his own
For a long time, Bumrah had been seen by many as a white ball specialist. However, he himself had other plans. Hardened by the rigours of the Ranji Trophy, Bumrah burst onto the Test scene earlier in 2018 where he impressed in the tours of England and South Africa.
But it was in Australia that he cemented his place as one of the best bowlers in the world. His unusual action had always troubled batters. What bothered them even more was his ability to make the ball move around, off the seam. On bouncy Australian wickets, he hurried many a batter into knicks and misses, amassing 21 wickets at an average of 17 in the four matches.
Source : IndianExpress
