On this day in 2019 Virat & his boys created history on Australian soil

XtraTime Web Desk: January 7, 2019 will always be remembered as Indian cricket team’s one of the best day in cricket as they became the first Asian team to beat Australia in a Test series Down Under. With a 2-1 series win in a four-match Test series India won the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time on Australian soil in 71 years. The Men in Blue have been touring Australia since 1947 but never before managed to win a series in the country.

Cheteshwar Pujara, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma were the main architects of India’s historic triumph as they dominated the hosts in the first (Adelaide), third (Melbourne) and fourth (Sydney) Tests to stun the Aussies, who were without batting lynchpins Steve Smith and David Warner due to their suspensions.

Australia though, had their full-strength bowling attack consisting of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon but even they didn’t have any answers against the likes of Pujara, Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Mayank Agarwal.

Pujara ended up scoring 521 runs in the four matches at a staggering average of 74.42 with three hundreds and a fifty, followed by Rishabh Pant (350) and Virat Kohli (282). The batsmen held their own against the strong Aussie attack but it was the fast bowlers who did most of the damage for India.

Jasprit Bumrah was the most impressive of the lot with 21 wickets at an average of 17.00, which also included a five-wicket haul. Nathan Lyon matched the tally but was not able have the same impact as Bumrah had for India in that series.

Shami and Ishant backed up Bumrah with 16 and 11 wickets respectively as the Indian pacers hunted in packs throughout the course of the four Tests. Ravindra Jadeja (7), R Ashwin (6), Kuldeep Yadav (5) and Umesh Yadav (2) all played crucial supporting roles.

The Indian bowlers bagged a total of 51 wickets in the four matches with Australia getting bowled out 7 times out of 8 during the series.