'A battle of pride': Shoaib Akhtar praises Virat Kohli's XI after India 'bullied and hammered' Australia

Team India's brilliant performance against Australia made sure to shut down trolls who states the Men in Blue were only winning against small and weak teams.

The talks had begun after India's disappointing 10-wicket loss to the Aussies at the Wankhede Stadium.

After the loss, India made a comeback in the second ODI and later on went on to produce an exceptional performance in all the departments on Sunday to clinch the 3-ODI series 2-1 in Bengaluru.

Rohit Sharma powered the batting unit with his 29th hundred in India's chase of 287. He was well supported by captain Virat Kohli who also scored 89 runs. 

Seeing India's victory, former Pakistan bowler Shoaib Akhtar credited the captain for mounting an exceptional comeback.

On his Youtube channel Shoaib100mph, Shoaib called Kohli "an exceptional leader".

"Virat Kohli is an exceptional leader. He is very tough mentally. He knows how to mount comebacks. His boys know it as well. He doesn't give up after setbacks. Then if you have talents like Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, then you know that if you have got the opposition out for less than 300, that too in Bengaluru, then you forget about stopping that chase," said Shoaib.

Shoaib even called the series a 'Battle of Pride' between two top countries in the world. 

He said that there is something different about this Indian squad as in they don't panic even after a loss.

"It was a Battle of pride. This is a new Indian team, not like my playing days. To win the series after losing the 1st match so comprehensively was quite difficult. In Chinnaswamy, basically India bullied and hammered Australia; it was like playing with boys. This was too much from India(laughs), total annihilation.

"When Rohit is on song, he doesn't care whether it's a good/bad ball. It comes very naturally to him. On pitches like Chinnaswamy, he becomes ruthless. Australia got a taste of their own medicine, like when they used to have a great team. Today the tables are turned," added Shoaib.

Shoaib, not only praised India but also Australia for playing some good cricket. "Great skills, great characters, great series. All in all, India looks a very good package to me," concluded Shoaib.

India now travel to New Zealand for a full-fledged tour - 5 T20Is, 3 ODIs and 2 Tests - with the 1st T20I beginning on January 24.