VVS Laxman praises India for winning the Test series in Australia, Irfan Pathan impressed with India's pace attack

Former Indian cricketer VVS Laxman praised current skipper Virat Kohli and his team on claiming a Test series victory against Australia in Australia for the first time in history. He also termed India's dominance in 2019 as a 'good year' for Indian cricket and defined the series win as his favorite moment of the year.

Kohli led India to a resounding 2-1 victory against Tim Paine-led Australia earlier this year. India won the first Test match in Adelaide by 31 runs but lost the second match in Perth by 146 runs. However, the team came back strong by registering a notable win by eight wickets in the third Test held at Melbourne. The fourth and the final Test in Sydney ended in a draw as the visitors retained the Border-Gavaskar trophy, where Virat Kohli termed it as the most significant achievement of his career.

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While speaking to Star Sports Cricket live show, Laxman was quoted as saying:

It’s been a very good year for Indian cricket but being a Test cricketer, my dream was always to beat Australia in Australia but I was not able to achieve that in my career.

I’m so glad that this Indian team under Virat’s leadership has beaten Australia for the first time in their own backyard which is my favourite moment of Indian cricket in 2019.

Cheteshwar Pujara, with 521 runs in 7 innings, was the top-scorer from India versus Australia, followed by Rishabh Pant with 350 runs in seven innings. Jasprit Bumrah starred with the ball with 21 wickets to his name. While India remained winless in Australia in the past 12 attempts, Kohli became the only Indian captain to lead towards India's victory courtesy of all-round performances.

VVS Laxman (left) and Irfan Pathan (right)

India's notable achievement in 2019 was its formidable bowling unit in all formats of the game. Praising how the current pacers bowled beautifully for India, which was once known as a spin-dominated side, veteran Irfan Pathan highlighted it as one of the best he had ever seen.

This year we saw India’s fast bowlers bowl beautifully for the country and it’s been one of the best fast bowling line up’s that we have seen.

We saw the intent with which they bowled, they came in, bowled hard-swinging deliveries, new or old ball it didn’t matter, I have really seen the growth of Indian cricket especially in terms of fast bowling which has been the highlight for me this year.

Earlier Indian skipper Virat Kohli also praised 2019 as 'one of the best years' in Indian cricket, depicting how the 2019 Cricket World Cup semi-final defeat was their only low point of the year. He also mentioned that the team would be working hard to chase the ICC trophies in the years to come.