India in Australia, 2020-21

[PKBasu]

324 on the final day (hopefully with 97 overs, and a bit of added time) should be doable for this side, as long as the sun is out for the first two sessions. A big opening stand would be the perfect platform.

No big opening stand, but the third wicket stand did the trick! It was always doable for this side!

[Prem]

Congratulations to Team India on achieving one of the greatest series wins at least in recent memory.
It was special as the team was struggling to put up a playing 11 for this match.
The gutsy performance of Pujara, the sublime Gill, the refreshing and courageous Sundar and the man of the match Pant...
Absolutely over the moon as the best I hoped for was a draw. Counting down the balls...
Good we went for it as it meant the Aussies couldn’t attack too much.
Good gesture from Rahane to gift a signed T-shirt to Lyon for his 100 matches.
However, we kept him on 399 test wickets!!
Team for England series is being announced today. Could have waited a bit to assess the fitness of players.
Not sure how you drop anyone from this team....
Need to win 2-0 instead of 4-0 (if we had not won today) against England to qualify for June Test Championship final in Lords.

[Rajiv]

A mildly sobering thought is that a few of the heroes of this match may not play another Test for India when things are back to normal. Washington , Natarajan ,Thakur ,Mayank and maybe even Siraj, unless there are some injuries or if the selectors decide to take some hard decisions.

[srini]

A mildly sobering thought is that a few of the heroes of this match may not play another Test for India when things are back to normal. Washington , Natarajan ,Thakur ,Mayank and maybe even Siraj, unless there are some injuries or if the selectors decide to take some hard decisions.

And you may add Rahane may never captain another Test for India!! Hopefully you are wrong and good sense may prevail on selectors who would have kept all these winners waiting if not for the injuries. Hopefully the “earned the right to call when to retire” kind of selectors are shown door. I am starting to believe that Rahane is a better captain and Virat should focus on batting instead, Sachin did exactly that. Rahane has done the right thing and made the intentions clears today by sending Pant ahead of Mayank and by himself playing with positive intent during the short stint while he could easily have opted to go into shell batting along Pujara! When leader expresses the intent through actions and not necessarily thru aggression/bravado the team will start believing that they can and need to do their part which they did today.

[gbelday]

Incredible win. It's been a while since I've been up past midnight to watch a cricket match. This makes you feel in love with Cricket all over again Winning abroad (especially in Aus, Eng, NZ and SA) is what I want to see. A lot of credit should go to Rahane. The team was fearless, they believed in themselves and they didn't cave as most of us here expected. I'll keep my Willow TV subscription now

[prasen9]

This has to rank among the best victories I have seen in my lifetime. Kolkata was special but that was at home. I think there were several times yesterday and today I thought there was no realistic chance of a win. From there, this was a Houdini act by Gill and Pant assisted by Pujara and then by Rahane and Sundar. Wow!

[sameerph]

Yes, superb win. Pant showed a lot more maturtity than I thought he would. After failing in first 2 tests, Pujara came back into his own in last 2 tests and did what was expected of him in last 2 tests. Gill proved to be better than I thought he would be.

Must say in the last 2 days, Indian second string bowlers were lot more effective than Aussie top lot on this pitch. I thought thru the series Stark and Lyon were well below their best and Cummins and Hazelwood were the only 2 who were at their best and probably in the last test, Cummins was too tired due to overwork.

[prasen9]

Would a good moderator please move this original post and my reply regarding the team for the England series to the England series page? Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Kumar]

U know the best thing that happened to India was that we got out for 36 in the first match! Every false shot resulted in dismissal! Over the subsequent three matches,lot of edges dropped short! Towards the end, So many balls just dropped short!

Australia played well, but it just seemed that their bowling lacked the IT factor!

Has any Test teams hat has played more than 10 matches ever won a test match with their bowling attack having less than 10 matches in total( Siraj - 3, Saint - 2, Thakur -2, Sundar /Natu - 1) this count includes the current match! This is just a truly amazing feat

I remember being glued to the radio during 1985 series down under when India entered final day play to win two test matches (Sydney, Melbourne iirc)! Lot of poor umpiring decisions and rain robbed India of the series win ! After 35 years we have finally laid that to rest

[prasen9]

The best thing was that Pant never tried to loft a pacer.

But, it was standard idiocy when Washi went to reverse sweep Lyon. And Thakur tried to hit out. At that time, they needed 12 runs in 4 overs or so. Singles does it. Stupid failures and brain fades almost cost us the match.

It was good to see Prithvi sent before the last shot to give a message to Pant to play it coolly and not try to hit things for a six that he tried before that. I do not know why our players cannot follow Kohli's lead and never loft unless there is an empty outfield and that too seldom to pacers on a bouncy pitch. And, when we need singles, we should shun risk and play singles. Someone should have a chat with Washi and Thakur.

[sameerph]

Would a good moderator please move this original post and my reply regarding the team for the England series to the England series page? Sorry for the inconvenience.

Done. No inconvenience.

[Kumar]

Yes, superb win. Pant showed a lot more maturtity than I thought he would. After failing in first 2 tests, Pujara came back into his own in last 2 tests and did what was expected of him in last 2 tests. Gill proved to be better than I thought he would be.

Must say in the last 2 days, Indian second string bowlers were lot more effective than Aussie top lot on this pitch. I thought thru the series Stark and Lyon were well below their best and Cummins and Hazelwood were the only 2 who were at their best and probably in the last test, Cummins was too tired due to overwork.

Sameer, right from Melbourne test, Ifelt Aus bowling attack though probing was never great! Cummins was great, and Hazelwood was good, but Lyons and starc were mediocre! Even Hazelwood was mediocre yesterday! Their bowling line was just poor! If u swapped Lyons name with Ashwin, Ashwin would have been clobbered for not making a difference on 5th day wicket!australia took just 10 wickets in almost 200 overs on 5th day of this series
I think weather just helped India a bit yeah! Not sure Thacker bowls as well if the 4th day was a s sunny as the fifth day!

It just seemed that Pujara was the only batsman who struggled yesterday! This was his worst innings technically, but showed tremendous will to stay on! He blunted the Aussie pace attack! We don’t win this series with out him!

[Kumar]

The best thing was that Pant never tried to loft a pacer.

But, it was standard idiocy when Washi went to reverse sweep Lyon. And Thakur tried to hit out. At that time, they needed 12 runs in 4 overs or so. Singles does it. Stupid failures and brain fades almost cost us the match.

It was good to see Prithvi sent before the last shot to give a message to Pant to play it coolly and not try to hit things for a six that he tried before that. I do not know why our players cannot follow Kohli's lead and never loft unless there is an empty outfield and that too seldom to pacers on a bouncy pitch. And, when we need singles, we should shun risk and play singles. Someone should have a chat with Washi and Thakur.

Man, even Pant after hitting a great pull shot for 4, skied the next ball! We used up all the nine lives day! Sundar has no biz with that shot! Reverse sweep on 5th day pitch! Even Pant tried it some time

[sameerph]

Sameer, right from Melbourne test, Ifelt Aus bowling attack though probing was never great! Cummins was great, and Hazelwood was good, but Lyons and starc were mediocre! Even Hazelwood was mediocre yesterday! Their bowling line was just poor! If u swapped Lyons name with Ashwin, Ashwin would have been clobbered for not making a difference on 5th day wicket!australia took just 10 wickets in almost 200 overs on 5th day of this series
I think weather just helped India a bit yeah! Not sure Thacker bowls as well if the 4th day was a s sunny as the fifth day!

True, Siraj and Shardul got so much more movement and bounce from this pitch on fourth day than the Australian fast bowlers got on day 5. The way our bowlers bowl on day 4 made us think that pitch is difficult to bat on but today the pitch looked much easier. So, the difference was bowling.

[Atithee]

And you may add Rahane may never captain another Test for India!! Hopefully you are wrong and good sense may prevail on selectors who would have kept all these winners waiting if not for the injuries. Hopefully the “earned the right to call when to retire” kind of selectors are shown door. I am starting to believe that Rahane is a better captain and Virat should focus on batting instead, Sachin did exactly that. Rahane has done the right thing and made the intentions clears today by sending Pant ahead of Mayank and by himself playing with positive intent during the short stint while he could easily have opted to go into shell batting along Pujara! When leader expresses the intent through actions and not necessarily thru aggression/bravado the team will start believing that they can and need to do their part which they did today.

Srini, well said. You touched on two of the points I’ve been making and strongly believe in—Kohli playing as a pure bat and getting rid of the deadwood. Thanks.