One of the greatest events in the history of sports
And we are lucky to have witnessed it in our lifetimes. Since my childhood I’ve been mesmerized by quite a few epic sporting moments — Michael Jordan & Chicago Bulls winning NBA Championship in 1998 (who can forget MJ flashing 6 at the crowd), the close encounters of F1 champs Michael Schumacher and Kimi Riakkonen (my brother an avid supporter of Kimi and myself of Schumi), Real Madrid vs Barcelona (el classico ladies and gentlemen), Federer vs Nadal, the Belgian football team sailing in the last World Cup to reach semi-finals (summer of ’18, a holiday heading home — big screen, my bud — a crazy ass football fan), and several others, which I’m pretty sure, would be worth mentioning.
Australia vs India 4-match test match cricket series 2020–21 was a rare event and in fact, this is what those heroic stories are made of — a powerful opponent, an underdog who doesn’t want to be knocked down, despite injuries, despite racial slurs, instead keeps standing up and fighting back, the battle goes back and forth between the sides, and eventually, culminating in an unforgettable showdown. For those who love this beautiful game, it is as good as it gets, for others bad luck. It’s an event you show to your kids, to your friends because you want to tell them — no matter how good the opponents or how big a challenge, if you fight hard, with conviction and don’t give up, you will only come out victorious.
The 5-day cricket format has been my favourite always — for one, it is super tough and it pushes the players to their physical and mental limits. You could see that on the last day of the test series on both sides. Only, Indian players never relented till the moment it was over.
Boy there are so many incredible performances that I’m in awe of — the fightback of Vihari (playing with a hamstring injury) and Ashwin (playing with a stiff back) to draw the 3rd test match, bowling of Siraj and Shardul, batting of Shardul and Washinton, the entire final day at the fortress, Pujara taking the game to another level while Shubman and Rishab nailing it with their impeccable hitting.
More or less every one, including myself, thought that India would be lucky to salvage a draw on a final day Gabba pitch. But as it turned out, these guys had other plans. There was clear planning in the way they approached the day and their implementation of was exemplary. This level of intricate planning on a final day of test series that allows you to win the match in the last minutes required guts, conviction, confidence and any other big words that we can think off. This was done as perfectly as possible. How else would you breach the fortress of Gabba, that no other team was able to do for 32 long years.
And you just keep wondering, how India started the series already with a couple of key names missing in the 1st match, then, lose a main bowler in the 2nd match while missing the captain/best batsman for the rest of the series, and from then on, players were dropping from the playing 11 like flies. In the final match, they end up playing with 3 real established test match players. Meanwhile Australia is playing full strength. And yet final tally India win series 2–1.
This rarely happens in any team sports that a team is able to win a series, after losing the first match so badly, and that too with so much inexperience in the line up. In case of cricket’s test match format, I don’t think it has ever happened and against a top team like Australia, on their turf, that’s an amazing feat. In one-day format, it’s often that a single session takes a match one team’s way and then, you see teams generally bouncing back from a loss. But in test matches, you have to keep up in multiple session or else, it hurts badly like it did for India in the first match.
And this is what makes it so admirable. Hell the cricketing brains had written them off. 4–0 whitewash by Australia they said. They have to eat their words eventually.
There is so much more that kept happening on and off the pitch. Siraj while being racially abused, also lost his father in India. He continued to fight on.
I can also not forget Ravindra Jadeja ready to come out to bat again despite a thumb fracture. Washington and Natarjan were only meant to be net bowlers and what a part they played.
I cannot recall so much happening in any series in my lifetime at least. The fighting spirit of our Indian players will be remembered for a long time.
Two teams that fought hard to the end and one that rose so high that it touched the sky.
