Australian soil has been the setting for some of Indian cricket’s greatest victories. From a hamstrung Kapil Dev taking 5-28 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to skittle Australia for 83 in February 1981 to Shubman Gill (90) and Rishabh Pant (89*) helping India pull off a near-miraculous chase of 328 at the Gabba in Brisbane four decades later, there have been some real highs for Indian fans to savour.
But this 295-run triumph at the Optus Stadium in Perth, where Australia had not lost since it first staged a Test in 2018, might well go to the top of the list. In terms of victories by runs, it was India’s most emphatic in any of the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries going back over 90 years. And in terms of the context – coming on the back of a 3-0 home thrashing by New Zealand – it was definitely one of the most unexpected.
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India’s first innings didn’t even span 50 overs, with only a fighting 48-run partnership between Rishabh Pant and Nishit Kumar Reddy, the debutant, taking them past 100. Thereafter, the manner in which the team stormed back, led superbly by Jasprit Bumrah, is the stuff of legend. Bumrah’s spell on the first evening blew the game open, and India’s much-maligned batsmen then showed tremendous resolve to take the game away from Australia.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, the youngest Indian centurion in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar, may have stolen the headlines along with Virat Kohli – whose seventh century in the country moved him one ahead of his hero – but spare a thought too for the likes of KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal and Washington Sundar, whose determination and patience blunted what is the most decorated bowling quartet in modern-day cricket.
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As for Reddy, he batted in both innings without a trace of beginner’s nerves, and though he bowled only seven overs across the two innings, it’ll be hard to leave him out of the pink-ball Test in Adelaide after such an assured display with the bat.
A generation ago, Ishant Sharma’s fiery spell to Ricky Ponting was the highlight as India became the first visiting team to win at Perth’s old WACA ground in more than two decades. Four years earlier, Rahul Dravid’s 233 and 72 not out had been the cornerstone of an epic win in Adelaide, after Australia had racked up 556 in the first innings. The Gabba heist in 2021 was Australia’s first defeat at the infamous ‘Gabbatoir’ since West Indies won there in November 1988. Now, the Optus too has fallen to an Indian assault.
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As for Bumrah, who led with verve and imagination and by example, he already has strong claims to be India’s greatest-ever pacer. He turns 31 on the first day of the Adelaide Test, and has been playing Test cricket less than seven years. But he already has 181 wickets in 41 Tests at a paltry average of 20.06, and a strike-rate (43.6) better than most of the all-time greats.
No Indian quick bowler has ever taken 10 wickets in a match in Australia, but Bumrah now has his 8-72 in this game to place alongside the 9-86 he took at the MCG in 2018. The way he flummoxed Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head in this match, there’s the very real prospect of more history being rewritten before the series ends in Sydney in January.
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