Depleted We Win!!

What is it about depleted Indian sides Down Under? They seem to do better than the full-strength teams. Team India winning the first Test of the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) at Perth with a whopping margin of 295 runs (the biggest in terms of runs in Australia) in the absence of two key players – captain Rohit Sharma and No. 3 Subman Gill – and then getting thrashed by the same opponent by 10 wickets in the very next Test after the two star batters were back in the team is only the latest proof of this strange, inexplicable phenomenon.  

I doubt if there is a cricket fan in the country who doesn’t know about – or remember – that famous victory at the Gabba while chasing 328 in the fourth innings while missing almost the entire first choice bowling unit. (It was the one where Rishabh Pant played that career defining innings of 89 not out). Captain Virat Kohli was out on paternity leave after the first pink ball Test at Adelaide – where India was annihilated for its lowest score of 36 – while the team lost all its first choice bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja – due to injuries at various stages during the series. Even Hanuma Vihari, who had played such a wonderfully defiant innings to save the previous Test in Sydney while playing with an injury, was not available for the last Test.

At the start of the series decider on the ground where Australia had not lost a match in 33 years, no one gave India a chance in hell. After all, the Indian attack had three debutants – Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini and Thangasaru Natarajan (who, incidentally, was with the team only as a net bowler!), another (Shardul Thakur) who had played just a solitary Test – and that too three years ago - and was being led by a person who had made his debut just two Tests before (Mohammed Siraj). And this rookie bowling attack had the rather onerous task of stopping the likes of Steven Smith, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne. And the batters, among whom was a man who had debuted earlier in the series (Subman Gill), had the even more unenviable task of facing the relentless onslaught of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jose Hazelwood and Nathan Lyon on their home turf. But the motley, ragtag unit put together by a desperate team management did the unthinkable and won against a full-strength Australian side in their own backyard. ‘Gabbattoir’ was conquered and how!! !!

This one is too recent to forget for any fan. While three of the Heroes of Brisbane 2021 – Thakur, Saini and Natarajan - have now fallen by the wayside, three others – Subman Gill, Rishabh Pant and Washington Sundar - are still part of the current team. But the phenomenon of depleted Indian sides beating the mighty Aussies in their den started 43 years ago at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where India has won the most Tests on Australian soil. Imagine an Indian attack consisting of a bowler and half decimating an Australian side that had the likes of Greg Chappell, Allan Border, Doug Walters, Kim Hughes and Dennis Lillee in its ranks.

There was no TV in our parts those days. But the memories of that unforgettable match, coming to millions of cricket fans through the radio waves, still reverberate with the older generation. Chasing a mere 143 in the fourth innings, Australia were 24-3 by the end of the fourth day’s play, the great Greg Chappell having been bowled first ball by Karsan Ghavri. I remember fidgeting on the bed all night, unable to sleep in the tension and excitement and wondering if there could be a miracle in the morning.

And a miracle, it certainly was! With Karsan Ghavri and Shivlal Yadav down with injuries, the bowling was in charge of a limping Kapil Dev, who bowled from a shortened run up with his thigh strapped due to a torn muscle and Dillip Doshi, who kept bowling non-stop without realizing that he had a broken toe! But this one-and-a half-man attack was a handful for the Australians, who folded up for just 83 in their pursuit of 143. Their bowling figures make for some startling reading. Kapil Dev: 16.4 overs, 4 maidens, 28 runs and 5 wickets (four of them clean bowled!). Dillip Doshi: 22-9-33-2.

Interestingly, this spectacular win by a hopelessly depleted side came on the back of a sound thrashing in the first Test at Sydney (where India went down by an innings and four runs) and a hard-fought draw in the second at Adelaide when India had the services of all its first-choice players, including bowlers.

Just goes to prove the old, oft-repeated adage that cricket indeed is a game of glorious uncertainties!!

(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)