By Monojit Mandal
SHILLONG: Cricket has great significance among sports in India, being an arena in which we looked eye to eye with major cricketing nations, which we failed miserably to do so in hockey or football. India has always demonstrated a strong urge of winning at home but equally failed to carry that same compulsion while touring or playing abroad.
With times and holding hands of many outstanding leaders, India tried to capture that glory on foreign soil until 2019, when Virat Kohli-led young Team India finally caught hold of the fame, having won a Test series in Australia.
It was in 1947, when Team India led by Lala Amarnath first set out for the chalice in Australia to take on Sir Donald Bradman’s invincible squad. The result was inevitable though as the visitors lost the series 0-4.
Then again India tried its hand at the series in Australia in 1967 with no metamorphosis in the result as Australia again won the series by 4-0. However, in 1977 India did manage to upset the Kangaroos on a few occasions having won two tests in the five-match series but ultimately losing the series by 2-3. India did finally manage to restore their pride in 1981 when Dilip Doshi and magnificent Kapil Dev won the Test match for India at Melbourne, levelling the series 1-1. Bowling with injury, Dev returned with significant match figures of 5-28 on Australian soil.
The 1999 series saw pretty one-sided contests esteeming Australia once again with 3-0 victory but then in 2003-4 India came close to secure a first Test series win in Australia until legendary Steve Waugh stood strong to save the series 1-1 for Australia.
India-Australia series in 2007-8 was starred by the infamous ‘Monkeygate’ row involving Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds in the drama which ended in a 2-1 loss to India.
Unfortunately for India, the subsequent two series in Australia, 2011-12 and 2014-15, did go according to Australian script but it was India that were disappointed at both the junctures.
Until now, in 2019 when incessant rain in Sydney denied a 3-1 series win to India on Australian soil,but it failed to stop Virat Kohli to grab the historic milestone of becoming the first Indian captain to win a prestigious Test series in Australia 2-1, putting an end to a 71-year-old long wait to lay hands on the chalice of Test series glory down under.