India's resilience has got to give up at some stage. They can't keep doing what they've been doing, being so resilient, and tomorrow it might be the day (the resilience ending).
These were the words of legendary former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting one sleep away from that historic moment at Gabba almost four years ago. He didn't believe it, and honestly, no one did.
He wasn't to be blamed either. For a team depleted to the extent of finding it very hard to field a fit Playing XI, to get the better of an Australian team as strong as it can be, at a venue where they hadn't lost since 1988, you might be dreaming of it happening.
As many as 10 players (mostly part of the first XI) were missing that iconic Test match at Gabba in 2021. Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Hanuma Vihari, Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma. These are the players anyone would want in their team in a Test match. But India didn't have any of those for that series finale after a famous draw at SCG a few days ago.
What India had with themselves was two-test-old Shubman Gill opening with Rohit Sharma, debutants Washington Sundar and T Natarajan taking the field and three-Test-old Mohammed Siraj leading the fast-bowling line-up. Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma were the only senior pros in the team.
The injury-hit Indian team was up against the likes of Steve Smith, David Warner, Marnus Labushcagne, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon among others. Ponting's point at the end of Day 4 of that Gabba Test wasn't wrong if you consider these things. But the resilience didn't end for one more day and that day went into the history books of Indian cricket.
The Gabba was conquered! For the first time in 33 years. It was 2-1 India, which no one believed, especially after that 36-all-out drubbing at Adelaide. That was their first and only win at the Brisbane-based venue in seven attempts.
Once again the Gabba awaits. This time for the third Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024/25 with a scoreline of 1-1 again. This time after India's humiliating defeat at Adelaide due to a poor batting show. This time with the WTC final dream on the line for India.
India registered a famous win in Perth a fortnight ago due to some brilliant bowling by Jasprit Bumrah and a second-innings marathon batting by Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. But that fell apart in the Pink-ball Test in Adelaide a few days ago. The Indian batting, as has been the case in recent times, didn't perform well. The bowling was as not accurate as it should have been in the Day-Night Test.
Even after making 150 in the first innings in Perth, India went on to win the match by a massive margin of 295 runs. The bowling in Perth was right on the mark in the first innings as the maverick Jasprit Bumrah displayed jaw-dropping skill of seam and swing to bowl them out for 104.
India batted with great patience in the second innings, credit to which also goes to the conditions, which had eased from what was seen on the first day when 17 wickets fell for 217 runs.
But nothing should be taken away from Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, both of who notched up a 201-run opening stand, and Virat Kohli who got to his 30th Test ton. They batted with great temperament and outplayed the Aussies.
Even though Travis Head put up a fight, the tall target of 534 ensured an Indian win in Perth. But the Perth celebrations have now turned tensions after that Adelaide loss.
The visitors could make only 180 batting first and were bowled out in two sessions in the Adelaide Test. The conditions were not that bad for a score like that and Mitchell Starc took apart the Indian line-up with a career-best 6/48.
India found decent lateral movement with the ball in the third session of Day 1 but the line and lengths were not that accurate to induce the false strokes from the Aussies and get rewards.
Not trying bouncers to Travis Head, the Indian nemesis, is another head-scratching stuff that raised questions on the Indian team. The batter went on to make 140 and handed a trail of 157 to India. The game was almost done and the visitors could muster only 175, just about bringing Australia to bat again for a formality of 19 runs which they chased without breaking a sweat.
India are bruised now. Their batting is under serious question marks and barring Bumrah, the fast-bowling stocks look thin. As Rohit had said, Bumrah can't bowl from both ends, others need to stand as well. And batters need to do that too. They have not been doing it since the New Zealand Test series which they lost 3-0 at home. Rohit's form is under the scanner too.
India have a reason to stand now with Gabba upfront, the venue which saw the completion of one of the greatest stories of underdogs knocking out the heavyweights.
They have a decent squad to do it again this time. The likes of Rohit, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kohli, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Bumrah and Rahul are likely to form the core of the Indian attack and others will rally around these players to bounce back in the series.
Can the bruised Indian team take heart from that Gabba miracle to do some more of it in this series and keep the WTC final dream alive? Only time will tell.
