Ascendancy in Australia

"The conditions will be testing but this one-and-a-half years will define this Indian cricket team. The whole team is aware of that and with tours of South Africa, Australia and England coming up in a year and a half, all I can say is this will be a better cricket team after 18 months."

This is what India head coach Ravi Shastri had said in the pre-departure press conference of India's tour of South Africa in December 2017.

The former India captain is known as someone who speaks his mind. He spews words like a tracer bullet, often without caring about its consequences. He's akin to Sholay's Veeru who speaks right from the heart before asking Jai if he was right, with the response being: "Ab bol diya hai toh dekhlenge."

Shastri wasn't too far from being right, though.

This Indian team, led by Virat Kohli, had all the ingredients to conquer these nations and create history, one which no Indian team of the past would've even dreamt of doing back-to-back.

A strong batting line-up led by the world's best batsman across formats; a pace battery with variety and mixture of youth and experience. Name it and they had it all.

But while India lost the Test series in South Africa and England, they finally walked the talk, conquering Australia in a display of dominance never seen before by a visiting Indian side Down Under.

In doing so, Kohli's boys became the first team in the world to not lose a series – Test, ODI, T20I – while in its two-month stay in Australia. Having started off with a drawn T20I series, India took the confidence into the Test series to script a historic maiden in white flannels before mastering the ODIs too.

The twin series victories in Australia would serve as more of a relief to the team management, coming on the back of disappointments in South Africa and England.

The Proteas sojourn was a close affair, India losing the three-match Test series 1-2 before but bouncing back to win the ODI (5-1, 6-match) and T20I (2-1, 3-match) series convincingly.

England, on the contrary, was a completely disaster. Sure, India had their moments in the Test series, yet the final scoreline of the five-match series read 4-1. They faced defeat in the ODI series too, the T20I win in the beginning being the only consolation.

Final stop: Australia. One last chance to rise Down Under.

On November 25, 2018, the departure day of India's Australia challenge, there were no big phrases used by the captain or the coach in their pre-departure presser, unlike almost a year ago.

They were more subdued and toughtful, knowing critics would pounce on every word they promised if they failed to deliver.

"Playing for a win, 100 per cent. Nothing will change. It is just about seizing those tough situations, getting tough mentally when the going gets tough. That's where we have erred," were the kind of replies that the usually high-on-confidence Shastri gave.

This time, it was different. Chest-thumping had given way for self-belief.

The team knew this was the chance to correct the wrong. There was no Steve Smith or David Warner, two high-quality star players banned for a year for their involvement in the Sandpaper Gate.

Australia were hugely weakened in their absence. To expect leadership from Tim Paine was unfair, he was just another wicket-keeper who had some idea how to bat. Their best bet was Usman Khawaja, or may be a Shaun Marsh or an Aaron Finch.

India, on the other hand, had Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, the young Rishabh Pant and a struggling but an experienced-cum-talented opening pair in Murali Vijay and KL Rahul, before Mayank Agarwal was sent an SOS after the duo flopped. That's too much quality even for a solid bowling line-up like Australia had.

India have had quality batsmen touring Australia before too, but this time they were back by a bowling attack any captain would cherish on any conditions.

The promise was living up, as India won the first Test in Adelaide thanks to Pujara's single-handed efforts with the bat.

The new Perth stadium's wicket was as fiery and furious as the previous one, the kind which would test the mettle and character of the batsmen. Kohli stood tall with a ton but the others around him crumbled as India lost the game by 146 runs.

The Melbourne Test was a crucial opportunity for the Indians to take a lead in the series. And they did it clinically with a superb batting display led by Pujara again and more importantly, key contributions by the other batters including the debutant Agarwal. Jasprit Bumrah did his bit with the ball, starring with nine wickets. It was a handsome win by India for a handy lead.

By the time the Sydney Test came, India were on a different tangent, so confident and comfortable that it seemed Kohli & Co were playing at home. If not for India, the scoreline could've easily read 3-1, but who cares about scorelines when success stories are scripted?

(AFP)

Fast bowlers' party

Pujara and Kohli might have shone with the bat, but the fulcrum behind India's turnaround were the pacers who bowled their hearts out throughout the Test series and, in fact, outbowled a quality Aussie bowling attack in their own den.

In Australia, the pacers — Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Shami and Ishant Sharma – took 48 wickets of the total 70.

Having provided glimpses of their ability right from the first Test in South Africa, the fast bowlers have remained the key to India's improved performance in overses Tests.

ODI win, icing on the cake

Kohli & Co rounded off the Australia tour with an emphatic ODI series win. If there were question marks over India's strength in the longest format, there can be none in the 50-overs set-up with the kind of firepower they possess.
Being the upcoming ICC World Cup's biggest contenders, the ODI series triumph was a predictable one.

And the biggest positive to come out of the three ODIs was former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's return to form that has ended the debate over his waning abilities.

Dhoni's match-winning 87 not out in the chase in the deciding encounter in Melbourne brushed aside clouds that were hanging over Dhoni's head for quite some time.

Dhoni is here to stay as much as this Indian team's high and Shastri's bragging rights, , at least till the World Cup.