Team India traveled to Syndey with the series level at 1-1 and two of their premier pacers, Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav, added to the casualty list that already had Ishant Sharma even before the series started.
With a debutant pacer Navdeep Saini, leader of the pack Jasprit Bumrah and a one-Test old Mohammed Siraj, India hoped for something to go their way.
Well, they fought till the very end of the Test match with Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, and R Ashwin putting a value on their wickets above everything else. While the first took body blows, the second batted over 4 hours with a grade 2 hamstring tear and the third fought a sore back.
Indian skipper Ajinkya Rahane revealed that the team did not think of the final result during the game but decided to take it session by session. They were determined to put up a fight till the end and it produced a positive result for the Indians.
Ajinkya Rahane told Sports Today, “Our motive was to fight till the end. We fought well in Melbourne, before the Sydney Test match and we got the result. We played really well in Sydney.
On the 5th day, we decided that we’re going to take it one session at a time, let’s not think about the result, let’s not look at the scoreboard. Let’s play our game and then we’ll assess after tea.”
“So keeping our cricket really simple really helped us a lot. We were talking about partnerships, helping our team win, take our team to a good total, and giving each and every individual that freedom to play their game.
That’s how I feel everyone could express themselves and play their game,” he added.
(With inputs from Sports Today)
