India doesn’t have ‘an eye for an eye’ law but Team India has just enacted one. With a 4-0 victory over Australia, the atithi devo bhava philosophy can wait for now. It’s payback time, and as Ravi Shastri said with so much relish at the presentation ceremony: “You Aussies have won a lot, now it is India’s turn.”
In 2011-12 India were touring Australia, they were 3-0 down in a four-match Test series and lost the last Test in three days. They’ve returned the favour now, beating the visitors 4-0 and concluding the final Test with a six-wicket win in three days. And, as India are back to their dominating best at home, the Australian humiliation is complete — such a complete series loss has come to them after 43 years. For India though, the optimism is brimming. The series is known as Border-Gavaskar Trophy and India has reclaimed it. Holi has arrived early indeed!
It is the way that things have panned out for the Indian team which makes the eyes widen. Session after session, day after day, match after match Dhoni’s 11 have answered all the questions asked. They’ve had the horse for the course they’ve been given. The series has been won by a team effort, not by any sparkling individual performance.
Ravindra Jadeja finished with a five-wicket haul in Delhi, Shikhar Dhawan made the fastest debut Test hundred in the world at Mohali, Murali Vijay has made two big hundreds (153 in Mohali and 167 in Hyderabad) as opener, Cheteshwar Pujara has a double hundred to go with his unbeaten 82 on Sunday.
Sachin Tendulkar, on the other hand, has just one 50, an 81 which ensured an Indian comeback in Chennai, Virat Kohli has a hundred and an unbeaten 67, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni contributed a very strong double hundred in the first Test which gave India the initiative in the series. And, mind you, it’s not a batsman but a bowler who is Man of the Series. Ravichandran Ashwin has an astonishing feat of 29 wickets in the series, the highest in a four-match series against Australia by any Indian.
All this meant that there were four Man of The Match awards, which duly went to Dhoni, Pujara, Dhawan and Jadeja, while Ashwin took the biggest one, Man of the Series, in the end. Almost half the team winning laurels shows what a team game is all about.
Wealthy contributions from both batsmen and bowlers made results look attractive with none of the Test matches going into the period after lunch on the final day.
Such was the enormity of the Australian defeat.
The first Test in Chennai was won by eight wickets, the second in Hyderabad by a humungous innings and 135 runs, the third one in Mohali by six wickets on Day Five after the entire Day One was washed out due to rain and, finally a six-wicket win at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium here on Sunday, well inside three days.
We’ve seen something remarkable in the India-Australia Test extravaganza of 2013 - Indians have been uncharacteristically brutal while the Australians unrealistically timid. After all the turmoil that hosts have been in the period after the World Cup 2011, they can have the last laugh.