Team India tame Australia at ‘Gabbatoir’

Strap: Pant, Gill lead record run chase, India win series 2-1

Brisbane, January 19

At a ground Australians call “Gabbatoir” — the Gabba in the name comes from an aboriginal word for “fighting place” — a young and inexperienced Indian team created history by winning the fourth and final Test against Australia, to take the series 2-1.

Gabbatoir is the ground where visiting teams are traditionally herded for the first Test on the tour of Australia, to be mauled on a hard, bouncy wicket. This time around, Gabba hosted the last Test of the series, and the mauling was on the other foot, as it were.

India chased down the target of 328 for the loss of seven wickets, with only three overs left to be bowled. Two young men and one veteran were the day’s biggest stars — the 21-year-old Shubman Gill made an elegant 91 to put India on the road to victory; the veteran Cheteshwar Pujara, who turns 33 on January 25, was rock-solid as he defied Australian pace bowlers for five hours and 210 balls, giving the other batsmen the freedom to go for their shots; the 23-year-old Rishabh Pant struck a breathtaking 89 not out off 138 balls to take India over the line.

The victory, coming exactly a month after the team was dismissed for 36 runs in the second innings of the first Test at Adelaide, was as sweet as it was unexpected. India, without their best batsman and regular captain Virat Kohli after Adelaide, also lost their first-choice bowling attack due to injuries by the time the Brisbane Test started.

Going into Gabba, their bowling attack had a combined total of 13 Test wickets, while the Australian attack had over 1,000 wickets. Yet, with sheer will and fearlessness, the young Indians matched the Australians.

Pant, who has faced criticism for his choice of shots and wicket-keeping, later said it was “one of the biggest moments of my life”.

Captain Ajinkya Rahane was left beaming with delight. “I’m just proud of all the boys, each and every individual. We just wanted to give our best, not to think about the result,” he said.

Back home in India, new dad Kohli was over the moon. “To everyone who doubted us after Adelaide, stand up and take notice,” he wrote on Twitter. “Exemplary performance but the grit and determination was the standout for us the whole way. Well done to all the boys and the management,” he said. TNS