The whitewash

One statistic tells the transformation story: Six hundreds were scored in the five ODIs — some Australian cricketers have admitted to being awed by Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s batting. Over the years, even fans had come to rationalise the bruising tours of Australia — the big grounds, the kookaburra ball, the unfriendly crowds, snarling Australian players, huge gap in fielding standards, the hostile home press. Anything and everything has been used to explain away Indian defeats. For this Indian team to have overcome all that, especially after teetering on the edge of being whitewashed in the ODIs, is a splendid achievement.

The Australian pitches and the quality of the bowling have to be acknowledged, but that doesn’t overshadow India’s achievements. By the end of the tour, the bowlers also picked up and it was incredible to see a young Indian spearing in yorkers as consistently as Jasprit Bumrah did. The arrival of the older players like Ashish Nehra and Yuvraj Singh made the team look more potent. However, as good as this victory was, the greatest limited-overs Indian triumph in Australia would still be that 1985 World Championship of Cricket. It was only fitting, then, that Ravi Shastri, hero of that 1985 win and the only Indian cricketer to have driven an Audi inside the Melbourne Cricket Ground, was in the dressing room now to oversee the whitewash.