After staging a tremendous fightback on day 1, the Indian cricket team pulled off a convincing victory against Australia on its home turf. Before the series, naysayers had predicted a whitewash for India, most of the team has not been in great nick for the past few months, and India’s top stars have failed to perform at the required levels. The men in blue had an extremely dismal series against New Zealand at home, but it should not be forgotten that India is still leading the WTC table.
It seems the Australian team also took India lightly, expecting to get an easy ride. Their confidence turned into over confidence after bowling out the visiting team for a paltry total of 150. But the stand-in Captain Jasprit Bumrah had other ideas, with a magical spell of 5/30 he decimated the Australian batting lineup. Assisted well by Mohd. Siraj and Harshit Rana the Indian pacers proved extremely lethal wrapping up the Aussie innings at 104. India managed to finish with a surprising lead of 46 runs.
While cricketing pundits and analysts had been predicting a tough outing for the Indian team, many were even expecting India to be rolled over and whitewashed. Australian spinner Nathan Lyon had gone on record predicting a complete 5-0 series win for the home side. The Indian team on the other hand was already missing the services of veterans like Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Mohammad Shami. It was also without the likes of Shubhman Gill and the regular captain Rohit Sharma. The veteran Virat Kohli has been off-colour for some time while the rest of the team has been struggling as well. Still to disregard the Indian team in such a manner has backfired tremendously on the Aussies.
After the resounding bowling performance, the Indian batters piled on the misery of the Aussies with a score of 487/6 dec. Centuries by Yashasvi Jaiswal who is on his first tour to Australia and Virat Kohli’s 30th test ton, followed by Jasprit Bumrah’s magnificent bowling completed an outstanding performance by the visiting side. India beat Australia by 295 runs in the first Test of the five-match series. The indomitable Bumrah with eight wickets was expectedly awarded the man of the match.
The Indian team now reinvigorated will travel to Adelaide for the second test beginning on the 6th of December. Their numbers will also be bolstered by the expected returns of Shubhman Gill and Captain Rohit Sharma. The men in blue no longer looked like the underdogs, but as the 10-year holders of the Border Gavaskar trophy everyone was hoping to see.