Australia vs India 2018/19: 5 big takeaways from the Indian test series win

India have finally won a Test series in Australia after a span of 70 long years of waiting to lay their hands on that beautiful trophy. Seldom do we hear that India start favourites to win a series down under. But this time around, India did start favourites and comfortably brought the trophy home.

Almost everyone from the team had their contribution that affected the overall result of the series. Winning a 4 match test series 2-1 is something that will be remembered in the Indian subcontinent for a long time. This loss would have already started haunting the already underperforming Aussies.

The wait of 70 years finally ended for India

The team that toured Australia had a lot of pressure of winning majorly due to the series defeats in South Africa and England earlier in 2018. The Australian team lost, and lost because of the absence of Smith and Warner who are banned for a year in the ball tampering scandal and will only return in April this year.

Team India has a lot to be celebrated from this emphatic win over the Aussies. Here is a look at 5 of those reasons:

#5 A stunning bowling unit

All the bowlers that India tried during the course of the series performed very well. Everyone executed the plans, and the wolves attacked in packs. It was almost like a competition within the team of getting the most wickets, giving away as less as possible at the same time.

Bowlers had a big say in winning this series

Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav and also the part-timer Hanuma Vihari were those who bowled and bowled too well to disappoint. Ashwin played a clinical role in the first and only test he played in this series and grabbed 6 wickets. Shami took a total of 16 wickets throughout the series. Ishant too was phenomenal with his line length and the deadly pace. He accounted for a total of 11 wickets. Vihari did not get to bowl much but took 2 crucial wickets in the second test, breaking big partnerships.

As for Kuldeep and Jadeja, Kuldeep played just one match and took a 5 wicket haul in the first innings of the fourth test. Jadeja took the field in the third and the fourth test and had 7 scalps against his name. And last but certainly not the least, the strike bowler of the team, Jasprit Bumrah took 21 wickets. Overall, it was a collective effort from the bowlers just like they did in the England and South Africa tours as well.

#4 The Phenomenal Pujara

Cheteshwar Pujara has quite elegantly put all the questions over his capability in batting overseas, to rest. The man of the series, Cheteshwar Pujara was the top scorer of the series, way beyond the runner-up. The 'Man of the Match' in the first and fourth test match scored an aggregate of 521 runs at an emphatic average of over 74. These runs came in at the correct times, helping take his out of the difficult situations.

Pujara after scoring a Hundred.

He is a bonafide match winner and he proved that yet again. In the 7 times he walked out to bat, he came back thrice only after crossing the triple-digit mark and once after scoring a half-century. He missed his fourth double hundred just by 7 runs in the last test match. He showed his patience yet again throughout the series, as he played a total of 1258 balls while scoring those 521 crucial runs. India now can comfortably count on their wall as the foundation is much stronger now.

#3 The Batsmen

Just like the bowlers, the batsmen too did pretty well. Unlike the tours of South Africa and England, almost all the batsmen stood up and helped all the bowlers with their hard work and that ensured that they emerged victorious.

On the previous two tours, the batsmen had fallen short of what was expected of them. But this time, the batsmen did more than just enough to cross the line.

Though the opening batsmen Murali Vijay and KL Rahul failed miserably, Mayank Agarwal took over from the 3rd test and scored two half-centuries in the 3 innings he played. Even Hanuma Vihari played as an opener in the third test and negotiated a sustained new ball attack in the second innings.

Indian batsmen did justice complimenting the bowlers.

Then came the wall of Indian batting. As stated earlier, Pujara was the finest batsman in the Border-Gavaskar trophy, playing the anchor role right through the series. Virat Kohli played like he always does. He scored 282 runs, a little less than you expect from the 'King' Kohli, but it was a good effort nevertheless. Ajinkya Rahane too played very well in this series, finding his fine form and scoring 217 runs in 7 innings with his highest score being that of 70.

Indian batsmen scored big runs

Rohit Sharma made a comeback into the side after playing last in the South Africa tour earlier in 2018. He played 2 out of the 4 test matches and scored 106 runs at a decent strike rate of 35.33.

The find of the series in the batting department was the young and aggressive wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant. He was second in the list of top scorers, with 350 runs at an excellent average of over 58.

#2 The Arrival of Rishabh Pant

This 21-year-old young kid from Delhi started his test career in the England series in 2018. In the initial few matches, he was criticized by some of the experts for playing aerial shots in the longest format of the game and throwing his wicket away. However, he did score runs in that series with his maiden hundred coming at Oval in the fifth test of that series.

Pant is a growing really fast in the international circuit

In this series against Australia, he showed the intent and batted with much more patience. He tried playing shots along the ground and by the end of the series he has proved that he surely belongs here. In the last match of the series, Pant scored his career-best score of 159 not out, building on Pujara's 193 to take India to 622, and virtually sealing the series for India on the second day itself.

He has announced his arrival into the international circuit in quite some style. He is very young and has a long way to go. He will surely grow with time and could possibly be the perfect replacement to MS Dhoni that India has been searching for since his retirement.

#1 The exceptional Bumrah

Jasprit Bumrah, the kid with an unusual bowling action till a few years back, is now the most dependable bowler for the Indian Cricket Team in all three formats of the game.

Bumrah has had an amazing journey so far, and it only gets better from here. Bumrah got his test cap in the first tour of 2018 to South Africa, and since then, he has played 10 test matches and taken 49 wickets with an exceptional average of 21.9.

Bumrah has become the lead bowler of the team in no time

He has all that you can ask for, from a proper fast bowler. Despite his weird action, he can hit his lengths consistently and has some amazing variations. He has already cracked inside the top 20 in the ICC list of top bowlers, in all 3 formats, which includes topping the ODI list.

Bumrah is just 25 years of age and can only get better with time. With his deceptive action, he has done exceptionally well to not fall prey to injuries and keep adding stats and records to his already illustrious career.