With that unbeaten 89 at Gabba, Rishabh Pant achieved mortality that day. India breached Australia's fortress, scripted history by winning two back-to-back away Border-Gavaskar series and Pant became the hero, having a couple of 90-plus scores already in the series. However, there was another guy, who fought like a warrior though those four Test matches. Taking blows on his bodies, falling down and then getting up and giving back, Cheteshwar Pujara was a man of unbreakable spirit in that series.
Obviously, Pant won the accolades but Pujara's 176-ball 50, 205-ball 77 and 211-ball 56 knocks did what Pant couldn't do, wear Australian pacers down, make them toil hard and basically just tire them out to throw them off from their plans. According for former Australian captain Tim Paine, it was Pujara was responsible for India winning that series.
"Lot of people, they talk a lot about Rishabh in that last series in Australia. The guy who won them that series was Pujara," Paine said on the Grade Cricketer Podcast. "He wore us down, he wore our fast bowlers down. He bore balls on the body and just kept getting up and going again. I think there is certainly a place for that.," he added.
However, this time around India don't have Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, who smashed 112 after taking over captaincy from Virat Kohli when the latter had left for the birth of his first child. With India losing the home series against New Zealand and them missing Mohammed Shami in their pace attack, the five-match series could be a long one for India and their fans and Paine certainly thought so.
"Australia are going to start pretty strong favourites for me. I just think India haven't been playing all that well. Their batting looks a little bit brittle. Australia's batting doesn't look amazing in terms of output but we know the quality they have got there.
"Shami is going to be a huge difference. He was amazing last time and wore us down. Bumrah now, (there's) so much on his shoulders. If he gets hurt then it curtains for me," Paine added.
The five-match series kicks off on November 22 in Perth, followed by a day-night Test in Adelaide and then the Gabba before the Boxing Day and New Year's Tests.
