Ajinkya Rahane’s calm demeanor led India to one of Test cricket’s greatest ever series wins in Australia on Tuesday (January 19). He was the man behind the Indian Cricket Team’s turnaround in the recent four-Test series against Australia after the Adelaide disaster, all out of 36.
Following the horrific loss in the Day-Night Test, Rahane led Team India from the front after Virat Kohli left the tour, scoring a brilliant hundred to take the tourists to a series-leveling win in Melbourne and then an astonishing draw in the third Test in Sydney despite a lot of setbacks.
Coming to the remarkable Brisbane Test win, India took the mighty Australians with their second-string XI, especially without their first-choice bowlers, but the newcomers stood tall as every player took his responsibility to make sure the tourists breach their fortress – The Gabba – after 32 years to win the final Test by 3 wickets and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1 on Tuesday.
Apart from Indian cricketers’ outstanding efforts in difficult situations especially due to a lot of injuries, Rahane’s captaincy made this historic Test series win possible on Australia soil, but the stand-in skipper chose to still stay humble, saying he looked good as a captain because everyone contributed.
Rahane said in the post-match presser: “It's an honor to lead the country. It was not about me but about the team. I looked good because everyone contributed. For us, it was about having that character on the field, having the fighting spirit, the attitude.”
He further added, “It was really tough after the Adelaide Test but it was all about showing character and fighting spirit. We were not thinking too much about the result. We just wanted to play good cricket. Credit to everyone in the squad including the support staff.
We all should enjoy this win, not just us but every Indian should enjoy this. What we did here is historic and we want to enjoy this win tonight and once we land in India we will think about the England series.”
The stand-in captain was highly impressed by the way the youngsters including Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, and Mohammed Siraj, rose to the occasion throughout the Test series.
Praising them, Rahane said: “The way Gill batted for the last three Tests was really good. He was really composed, calm under pressure and today everyone saw what he can do.
Sundar in his first Test (here in Brisbane), we know about his bowling, but the way he batted in the first innings with Shardul (Thakur) was really good. They have set the bench-mark for themselves and I am sure they will grow from here.”
On the herculean task to chase 328 at Australia's fortress The Gabba, Rahane opened up about their game plan: “This morning we spoke about playing simple cricket. What we did on this tour was fight very hard. Yes, we were looking to play session by session.
During tea time, we sent messages to Rishabh but he was always looking to chase the total. Credit to him, he took that risk and took on the Aussies. His and Cheteshwar Pujara's innings gave the platform to win the game.”
In the absence of senior bowlers R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Jasprit Bumrah, India’s highly inexperienced bowling attack did a brilliant job in the final Test against Australia.
Rahane signed off by saying, “The message was all about bowling in partnerships, especially this Test, we knew Shardul was playing his second, Siraj has played three, Saini played two, and T Natarajan was playing his first. So, it was all about bowling in partnership, bowling in the right areas, and bowling according to our plans.”
(With PTI Inputs)
