Indian team capped-off their short Australian sojourn with an emphatic win in Sydney on Sunday. The victory made them the first team in the history of cricket to whitewash Australia in their own backyard in a series involving three or more matches across formats. And although it came after a loss in the One-Day International (ODI) series, it aptly summarised India’s overall performance on the tour. The score-line did go 1-4 against them, but the matches were far closer than what the end result suggested. A little support from the bowlers, and India could well have won the ODI series as well. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs Australia, 3rd T20I at Sydney.
What stood apart after the early losses was the spirit in the team, which can be understood by Virat Kohli’s statement: “We would like to finish strongly, and win all the remaining games left. We are looking at these four games rather than two series separately because we will feel much better about ourselves, if we do well from here on.” It is ones’ own perception that determines whether the glass is either half empty or half full. Being 0-4 down after first four games, Team India chose to look at it with optimism. By the end the Twenty20 International (T20I) series, the goal was accomplished. In the story of two halves, India had won the other half 4-0, including the clean sweep in the T20Is. ALSO READ – India vs Australia 2015-16: India’s marks out of 10 in T20Is.
India’s batting led by Rohit Sharma and Kohli did fantastically well throughout. While Kohli scored 580 runs in eight outings — out of which seven saw him go past the score of 50 — Rohit outscored any other batsman on the tour with his 584 runs in same number of outings. Both lacked support in the first half of the tour, but were backed brilliantly in the other half by the likes of Manish Pandey, Suresh Raina and in the end by Yuvraj Singh. Bowling wise too it was a story of two halves for India, with Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra and Ravichandran Ashwin pulling back things in the last ODI and the T20I series. Bumrah was the pick amongst them and easily one of the finds of this tour along with Pandey.
The famous win saw them become the top-ranked T20I team. This is a remarkable turnaround; from being No. 8 before the series to No. 1 after its completion, Indian team has covered huge ground. Also with the ICC World T20 just about a month away, the win could not have come at a better time. India now are No. 1 in both Tests as well as T20Is and No. 2 in ODIs. They are playing some exceptional cricket across formats at the moment and it will be fair to say these are exciting times for Indian cricket. However, MS Dhoni’s men are not the only one making the country proud. ALSO READ – India in Australia 2015-16 T20I series: Marks out of 10 for Australia.
When the men’s team was busy thrashing the Australians in the shortest format, their female counterparts too were travelling Down Under and taking on Australia’s women’s team. Taking a leaf out of men’s team’s book, they too beat Australia 2-1 in the three-match T20I series. This was again a remarkable achievement, considering the limited exposure of playing overseas to the women’s team. Also at the time of writing this piece, India’s Under-19 team has completed a hat-trick of wins in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. Team’s success in the tournament which happens to be a great platform for the stars of tomorrow ensures that the future of Indian cricket is bright and in safe hands.
All these teams have big assignments coming up. While the colts are already playing their biggest tournament in Bangladesh, the senior men’s and women’s teams play the ICC World T20 at home in March. The preparation has begun on the right note and all three teams are being touted as the favourites to win the coveted titles. Though winning the silverware shall be icing on the cake, the teams should be proud of themselves for the way they have played so far. They should be proud for bringing the good times for Indian cricket.
(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is a senior writer with CricLife and CricketCountry. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)
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