The small man from Maharashtra made a strong statment in the Melbourne Test with a brillint innings of 112 which gave a strong statement to the Australians that although King Kohli was no longer there, his team was not going to go down like a house of cards, they were there to fight and win.
Then in the third Test, Jadeja was struck on the thumb via a vicious bouncer from left-arm pacer Mitchel Starc. Followed by the racist taunts being from to drunk spectators in the Sydney crowd who were targeting both Bumrah and fellow paceman Mohammed Siraj who was apparently being called a 'brown dog'. Not to mention Paine's despicable act of removing Keeper-batsman Rishabh Pant's batting guard.
For a touring team to go down under, face all those incidents and still win a second successive series, says a lot about their character. Paticularly when an injured Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin battled through the last hour and a half on the final day of the Sydney Test.
With many of the senior players being in and then out of the series, this gave an opportunity to see some new faces in the Indian side. Shubman Gill, what a talent this young kid is. For someone from the Sub-continent to make from the their test debut in Australia and score 259 runs on those fast, bouncey pitches is a remarkable and brave effort, particularly against the likes of Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins, who were all bowling above 90mph. His innings of 91 was the catalyst for setting up the run chase.
Chasing a target of 328 on a pitch that was uneven in terms of bounce was not going to be easy, particularly when India lost Rohit Sharma early but the innings in which Pujara plsayed allowed Gill to play a counter attacking innings. the best of his shots was the big upper-cut over third man. If he hit it straight down third man's throat, I can imagine that he would get a lot of stick from the fans and media, but the fact that the ball flew over the boundary for six, sent a strong statement to the Australians saying look, if you want to bounce us out, bounce us out, we're not afraid of you, we're going for the target. For someone to play an innings like that in only his third Test, speaks a lot about Gill's talent and mmore importantly his character.
Let's also not forget the little Indian superstar Rishabh Pant. Another youg keeper-batsman who plays without fear. Pant has been brutally criticised in the past for giving his wicket away by playing reckless shots across the line, but the two innings he played at Sydney and the Gabba showed everyone the talent he has and the belief that he can turn a draw into a win, particularly if he stays at the crease for a couple of hours. The way he plays, reminds me about a certain Virender Sehwag in his prime, particularly with his flamboyant stroke play and fearless attitude as a cricketer.
Another crucial turning point the Test match was the sixth wicket partnership of 123 off 216 balls between Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur. without those 115 runs, India would not have come close to parity with Australia on first innings runs. The hosts were leading the tourists by a minor 33 runs at that stage of the match. On previous tours to Australia, the lower order has just been blown away by the pace and bounce, but the way Thukur and Sundar counter attacked the Aussie bowlers was just enthralling to watch as they although they were scoring fairly quickly, the shots they played were traditional cricketing shots and not slogging across the line.
India's next assignment is a five-match Test Series against England, where should they win that series by two matches, they automatically qualify for this year's Test Championship Final in June. England in fact were the last team to win a Test series on Indian soil back in 2012/13, where Alistair Cook's side defeated MS Dhoni's side by 2-1. Joe Root's side have recently won the first of two Test against Sri Lanka, they are favourites to take that series 2-0, but Will Kohli's India win another series on home soil?
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