The Indian cricket team is certainly one of the strongest teams of the cricket world and what makes it stand apart from other cricketing nations is its bench strength. The world got the chance of seeing India’s bench strength in the four match test series that was played between India and Australia last year in which India defeated the hosts by 2-1.
The Australian tour took place just after the IPL 2020 which was held in UAE due to the coronavirus pandemic and the Indian side may have lost the ODI series but won the T20I series and made history by retaining the Border-Gavaskar trophy. Before the beginning of the test series, many cricketing experts predicted that Australia would easily clean sweep the series and their confidence further increased after India suffered a humiliating defeat in the first test match which was played at Adelaide. The problems for India were going to increase further as India’s best test batsman and skipper Virat Kohli went on paternity leave after the first test match.
However, the Australian team and the cricket experts got the shock of their lifetime when the Indian side under the leadership of Ajinkya Rahane defeated the Australian team in the second test match which was played at Melbourne. Injuries were also a concern for the Indian squad and this was the time when the Indian youngsters rose to the situation and proved themselves when the opportunity was given to them. Despite the fact that the Aussies had a upper hand for almost first four days in the third test match which was played at Sydney, the Indians managed to draw it with the help of courageous and determined batting performance by the Indian batsmen, especially R Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari.
The fourth test match was played at Brisbane, Gabba, where the Australians were invincible for the last 33 years and injuries further increased the problems for the Indian camp. However, the less-experienced Indian team emerged as winner and not only won the test series but also broke the record of the Aussies at Gabba.
Recently during a show which was hosted by Mark Vaughan and Brendon Julian, the former England cricketer Michael Vaughan and the former Aussie cricketer and current coach of Australian team Justin Langer were asked to give their opinion on the test series which took place between the two super-powers of the cricket world.
Michael Vaughan took this is as an opportunity to troll Justin Langer as he said, “There’s no shame in losing to India’s 3rd XI”. Justin Langer was in no mood to take it lightly and said that everybody makes fun like Vaughan about losing to India’s 2nd or 3rd playing XI but the real truth is that a team will be pretty strong if it is from a nation that has a population of one and half a billion and who love cricket a lot.
He stated that there will be very good players who will leave no chance of showing their talent when they are given the opportunity. Langer added that the Indian youngsters were very talented and fierce and unluckily, the Australian team was on the wrong side of the ledger.
We certainly agree with Justin Langer! What about you?