The Pink test ends in a draw, as India triumphed over Kangaroos in their own den

Here we have arrived at the end of the one of the most exciting series of the prestigious Border-GavaskarTrophy, down under which ended 2-1 on India's favour at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground. Although the final test ended in a draw, as most of the penultimate day and the final day's play was called off due to rain and bad light.

At the beginning, Indian skipper, Virat Kohli had won the toss and chose to bat first, for the 3rd time in this test series. The visitors had made quite a few

notable changes in their eleven: The most surprising of them was KL Rahul was again brought into the side as an opening batsman, as Hanuma Vihari was sent back to his own batting position at no. 5 in place of Rohit Sharma who came back to India as his wife Rittika gave birth to their first child, a baby girl Samaira. The inclusion of KL Rahul in the team  has been questioned by many critics as there was no specific reason for his presence in the team as he was rightly dropped from the team in the last test after his poor performances in Adelaide and Perth.

These kind of partial team selection is highly prevalent in the recent times post 2011 world cup where the players who are in the good book of captain and the coach gets repeatitive chances in the playing eleven irrespective of their performances.

In the bowling department, the visitors have replaced Ishant Sharma, who had injured his back during practice was replaced by the chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav, which was proven to be a boon for the team as he ended with a fifer in the first innings. The visitors also made a few notable changes in their line up as they promoted Usman Khawaja to the opening position with Marcus Harris as they dropped Aaron Finch and brought Labuschangne into the side. They also brought back Peter Handscomb in place of Mitchell Marsh.

India again started on top with Mayank Agarwal again scoring a crafty 77 whereas KL Rahul again failed to validate his place in the test line up as he again fell to Josh Hazlewood with a mere score of only 9.

Again Cheteswar Pujara displayed a strong defensive batting display and eventually scored his 3rd century of the test series. This time he missed out on his first double century down under just by 7 runs as he fell to Nathan Lyon for 193 off 373 balls who managed to break his strong defense after a day and a half. Captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane couldn't make a mark this time as they fell for 23 and 18 respectively but, the Indian skipper showed a wonderful gesture as he came in with a bat with pink colored sticker and handle grip and the gloves and the pads with patches of pink on it. His gesture was to pay his tribute to the The McGrath Foundation which is  a breast cancer support and education charity in Australia, which raises money to place McGrath Breast Care Nurses in communities across Australia and increase breast health awareness. The charity was founded by former Aussie fast bowler, Glenn McGrath and his English-born wife, Jane McGrath, in 2005, following Jane’s initial diagnosis and recovery from breast cancer.Jane died on 22 June 2008 at the age of 42.

Later on in the Indian innings Rishabh Pant provided a wonderful support to Cheteswar Pujara and later on with the partnership of Ravindra Jadeja, he scored a gallant 159 not out. Indian captain Virat Kohli declared the innings after Ravi Jadeja fell for a quick 83 thus taking the score to  622 for the loss of seven wickets.

Again, Nathan Lyon was the pick of the bowlers among the Aussies as he scalped 4 wickets, continuing his wonderful form with the red cherry.

In reply, Australia was better with the bat this time. Opener Marcus Harris scored a good 79. But, Australia could manage only 300 ending their first innings, trailing behind the visitors by 322 runs.

Obviously, Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers who ended with the fugures of 5/99 thus completing his second five wicket haul in tests.  Ravindra Jadeja and Md. Shami picked up 2 wickets each while Jasprit Bumrah got only one to his name.

India took no time to enforce a follow on with hosts still trailing by 322 runs. But, the hosts couldn't bat longer as the play was called off for the fourth day with the 2nd innings score of the hosts at 6 for no loss in 4 fiery overs from Jarprit Bumrah and Md. Shami. Although the decision to call off the day's play on day 4 was a controversial one as many believe that the game could have been continued in that light. Maybe it was a kind attempt to save the Aussies from another debacle as they were on the verge of the 3rd defeat in the series.

Meanwhile, the fifth and the final day was washed off due to rains and there was no actions thus the match ended in a draw and India claimed the series 2-1. This was a historic victory for the team from the sub-continent as their wait of 71 years finally came to an end as they again retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Cheteswar Pujara was rightly adjudged both the player of the match and series as we got to watch some heroics from the man from Gujarat. Virat Kohli became the first Asian captain to win a test series down under. Besides Pujara, another bright thing for Indian cricket was the brilliant fast bowling display by the pace trio Ishant-Shami-Bumrah. Rishabh Pant also proved that an Indian wicketkeeper batsman can also bat and score heavily in overseas conditions. Thus, India was successful to validate their numero-uno position as the heroics from the Ganguly-Dravid era was back again after a long while in the longest format of the game as during the period of 2011-14 India always came back losing like minnows in the overseas affairs especially in the SENA countries. Virat Kohli thus proved that it's better to be an aggressive captain like Sourav Ganguly than to be a cool and calm one.

Photo Source: Google

Writer: Avirup Roy

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Read here the preview of this SCG Test here: RATTLED AUSSIES WILL TAKE ON TRANQUIL INDIA IN THE FINAL BATTLE AT SCG

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