Barack Obama spoke of 'Audacity of Hope' during his 2008 Presidential campaign given the audaciousness of a black man running for the highest office in the land under the slogan sub-text of Hope, and what Indian team achieved today is in sporting context simply Audacity of Hope...
I was 12 years in old, in 2001, learning the ebb and flow of test cricket when India beat Australia at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, when only 3rd time in the history of the sports match was won by team who followed on. It was the change of a millennium. It was Indian cricket’s fate turning moment after the infamous match fixing scandal by the turn of the century, which gave captaincy to Sourav Ganguly. We saw the birth of Harbhajan Singh onto Test cricket then, and two famous South Indians named Rahul and VVS made a s mark. That was where Indian cricket’s renaissance started when India won that series.
Cut to 2018, India won the series in Australia, and i wrote this. It was an emotional moment with 1st series win after decades of losses down under, utter capitulation in some matches, as a hard core cricket fan waking up in winters and seeing the team’s loss every single time apart from one odd test match wins (2003 Adelaide, 2008 Perth) it was never a gotcha moment until then.
Now onto 2021, the world ravaged by Covid in 2020. Sporting competition stopped along with everything all across. And when it did start in late summer last year, it was a ray of hope because sports does that it provides a ray of hope. Covid upended everything almost, but there is something that only sports can do. Bring a smile, bring a happy tear and may be make an attempt to pull us out of collective anxiety we were in during the last 12 months or so. That is exactly what has happened today, 19th January, 2021.
India won the series against Australia in Australia. It proved that 2018 was not a fluke or an aberration. We won despite the odds. Winning the test series is one thing, but winning in the circumstances in which they did is completely different. After being washed out in Adelaide in thr 1st test with a score of 36 all out, backs firmly against the wall and team in a rubble and with that to turn around and win it 2-1 is no mean feat. Further complicating the matters was the team losing 7, yes 7 of it’s starting XI line up including Kohli and Bumrah (The most important find of Indian cricket in 20 years or may be more). So going into the last test match with 3rd string bowling line-up, at what is fortress for the home side (they had not lost a test match in 32 years in Brisbane) is incomprehensible. I mean, to put in the context, the hero of the match, Rishabh Pant was not even born when Australia last lost at The Gabba. Pace battery had a total experience of 4 test matches against 100 test matches for only one bowler on the other side (Nathan Lyon). Remember, Rocky Balboa? "....it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!" India reached from lowest point in their test history to - in many ways - highest point in a matter of 30 days. From the decimation at Adelaide to ultimate triumph in Brisbane, history is not better scripted than this.
I have grown up all my life watching Indian cricket, i still have a Cosco ball right beside my laptop (no joking) and a hit to the wall to catch it might just give some answer to complex issue i am thinking about, so seeing what happened today is not just a day or event, it is an emotion. I had wet eyes and a lump in my throat as I type this. I have friends who i spoke to on this match, feeling like “man, i am done” we have, probably seen everything. We can now tell stories of this series - of which reams and books and movies might be - to our children and grandchildren like our parents’ generation tells us about 70s or 80s.
Look, there will be better days in sporting fields than this. There might better and bigger wins than this. But as of now it is what it is, the biggest and most consequential test series win by an Indian team in foreign soil. Come what may, it will be hard to top this.
And last couple of things, this win is a tribute to Rahul Dravid in ways more than one. I started with famous 2001 win where Dravid stood like who he was - The Wall, but this one had his shades as well. Gill, Pant, Thakur, Siraj, Saini, Washington sundar all from Rahul Dravid school of India A cricket and Under 19s. There isn't a better role model for a cricketing generation. If they can emulate his attitude - calmness under extreme pressure - which we saw a glimpse of, Indian cricket will be in safe hands in years to come and we as fans will have more days like this. Harsha Bhogle once said “more than talent you need character and attitude” there isn’t any thing in that line which this match cannot prove. And i know how big an admirer Harsha is of Rahul Dravid.
And finally, we all needed this. We all needed this kind of a day. For all our insecurities, fear, anxiety, pent up emotions of the horridly troubling times in this world, sports - as i have always believed - is a great unifier and single most important way to learn any life lesson. Come what may, you can win through, just need to scrap it out. Rohit Brijnath tweeted “nothing in sport like a good, hard scrap”.
Well done Team India, this one was for ages!! Sometimes we don’t know what we have seen or accomplished, only with historical prism do we understand the weight of achievements. And with the benefit of hindsight we contextualise its effects. And between Eden Gardens 2001 and Brisbane 2021 90s kid in me and in my cohort all grew up. Yes it is the ultimate truism that losses teach the best lessons, but it is Wins - these kinds of wins - that defines the purpose for a generation and this is that moment for many in the team and in far off places in India where a start would be born watching this.
