The Gabba Test

I am really out of words on how to start this. My mind is full of facts and contexts while heart is full of emotions. Will try not to mix them a lot. Would be a difficult task for the cricket fans like me. Let’s give it a shot.

The History Behind

While watching sports since Childhood, one of the most common words I learnt from it was ‘Underdog’. In Cricket whenever India did an overseas tour, they were the Underdogs. They weren’t expected to win. They were expected to give a decent fight and glory awaited them if they defied the odds.

The trend changed slowly in the 21^st Century where we began notching up one off test wins in difficult overseas conditions like Leeds, Johannesburg, Perth. They became memories to savour for us. And we started yearning for more. Series wins in South Africa and Australia became the next goals. We were shedding the tag of underdogs now.

Couple of years back we clinched maiden Series win in Australia. It was a huge moment but not of the same magnitude as this. Smith and Warner, the mainstays of Australian Batting lineup were serving a ban. India was playing their full-strength side. But as they say when the history is written, the context fades away eventually while the score line remains. So, for the records, India registered their first Series win in Australia.

The Reality Struck – 36 All out

Before India headed for Australia for the current series, a lot of odds were against them. It was declared that Kohli will be available only for the first test, Rohit Sharma was out due to injury and some mis-communication, Ishant Sharma too was injured while almost everyone was directly coming from an as-usual hectic IPL schedule. Add to it India would be playing their first day-night test overseas that too the series opener.

India gained an early advantage in first 2 days and we thought it will be an even contest when the reality struck. India were shot out for their lowest ever test score 36. The old days of a series whitewash came to the fore. India’s frontline bowler Shami got injured in this debacle and with Kohli leaving at this moment it appeared that the batting will become as fragile as the bowling. India were mocked at everywhere. Everyone assumed that the rest of series will be just a formality but the Indian team had other thoughts.

The Resilience – 2021 vs 2001

The cricket fans in my generation will have 2001 etched in their memory with the Kolkata test bringing a new culture altogether. In all likelihood, the Gabba Test will do the same in the coming years.

The mental strength and the spirit that the team displayed after bundling for 36 was just astounding. It became much more striking for the reason that they kept getting situations which placed odds against them. Each match saw one or other player getting injured. The final Gabba test saw them field 5 bowlers with experience of 4 tests among themselves. At least I never witnessed something like this before.

The team though wasn’t deterred by this. They shut themselves from the all the noise around and focused on the most important thing – Cricket. New Heroes emerged with each innings and when the teams were ready for the Gabba test they were tied on 1-1 with India pulling off an unbelievable draw in Sydney courtesy a gritty fightback.

See you at Gabba Mate!!

These were the words of the Australian Captain after being frustrated by the Indian team at Sydney in the epic draw. Brisbane aka Gabba was deemed as a fortress with Australia being unbeaten there for 32 years. Paine’s words had that history behind. But one thing he forgot that History is re-written too and in Cricket quite frequently.

Easy to say though but none of us would have imagined something like this when the last test began. We Indian Cricket fans hoped for a draw to at least share the series. It wasn’t a theoretical hope but a factual one. India were fielding 5 inexperienced bowlers against a Full-strength Australian team at their favorite venue.

The test began and it was a roller coaster ride which see-sawed between the two teams across 5 days. When the 5^th day began the thoughts were similar. Just play for a draw. Winning was a fairytale and Fairytales don’t happen often. But they do once in a while and 2021 was that year. The Young guns of India gave an everlasting memory to their Cricket fans and we couldn’t have welcomed 2021 with any better memory!!

Who was the winner?

India on paper but Test Cricket in theory. This was a match for Cricket Connoisseurs. It demonstrated what it meant to invest in 5 days of Cricket’s oldest format. It showed the importance of both Pants and Pujaras in Test Cricket. It resembled a battle field with players taking blows on themselves to fight for the team. It taught us the basic values of hard work, resilience, patience, leadership and mental-strength. Hopefully this match acts as a catalyst for increasing the value of Test Cricket across in coming years. It was definitely a match for the ages!!