By Rahul Banerji
Even from thousands of miles away, the resolve in Cheteshwar Pujara is impossible to miss. There’s a relentlessness in the way he stands at the crease, a sense of purpose.
The sea is not far from where I sit. The roll and crash of the surf is a continuous sound in the ears. It rises and fades but is a constant – unceasing, unchanging.
It reminds me of the way Pujara approaches his work at the crease.
Oftentimes in sport, as it is in life, it takes one to show the way, to set an example. Determination, as much as indecision or fear, has a signature vibration that transmits loudly.
And it strikes a resonance, as it clearly has in Pujara’s team-mates.
It will have taken immense steel for India’s Test squad to bounce back from the humiliation of their lowest-ever Test total recorded at Adelaide exactly a month ago.
On Tuesday, India capped their display of resolve in the finest manner possible.
Ominous signs
Australia were warned quickly. From the humiliation of an eight-wicket defeat inside three days to an identical result that went the other way in the very next game was the first signal.
Even as the cricket cavalcade rolled from city to city, India’s ranks had started to thin out, from family duty and injury.
The Sydney Test passed in a haze of anxiety as Australia mounted massive pressure to try and regain the initiative they had so suddenly lost at Melbourne.
The world’s most formidable fast bowling attack was foiled by guts and determination. Two men, one unable to even sit from a painful back and the other hobbled by his hamstring, had pushed back.
Hard enough to halt the Aussies where they stood as Ravi Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari scripted a fight-back for the ages. One of them is a bowler who can bat a fair bit, the other hitherto stuck in the batting doldrums.
There was a Pujaraesque display of sheer bloody-mindedness but it came at a price.
Green attack
At the Gabba in Brisbane, the visiting team fielded a bowling attack that had a combined total of four Test matches between them, two debutants, two who had played one game each, and the fifth a two-Test “veteran”.
This raw set of bowlers then did the unthinkable, taking Australia down twice to give their batsmen a chance to at least play for a draw, it not a bonus win.
The sons of a rickshaw puller, a government driver, a club cricketer and a weaver along with a pro who has had to battle weight issues brought a team that is the benchmark for combative cricket to its collective knees.
At no point on the final day of the series did it appear India could actually pull off victory. Australia have not been beaten at the Gabba for 32 years, it is a venue with the longest unbeaten streak for any team in Test history.
Between them, Shubman Gill, the doughty Pujara and finally the tantalising Rishab Pant then brought India home to a result that will resonate for a very long time.
Looming figure
Behind Gill, Mohammad Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Washington Sundar and Pant stands the figure of another great battler of the past, Rahul Dravid.
These five, and more on the fringes, have absorbed much from the Wall, as indeed from their never-say-die team coach Ravi Shastri. Without six frontline regulars, for a team to beat Australia in their citadel, is the stuff of legend.
That ought to give Captain Cool Ajinkya Rahane something to smile about. It’s something he doesn’t do very often.
Tuesday’s result also gave India s second successive series victory in Australia. Two years ago, Cheteshwar Pujara batted for a combined 31 hours. This time, it was somewhat less, but the outcome was the same.
Call it the Pujara effect if you will.
Also read: Pondicherry Diary: Room with a view and the Banana
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