Former India head coach Ravi Shastri believes the Rohit Sharma-led side was justified in celebrating on avoiding the follow-on during the rain-hit third Test against Australia in Brisbane, which led to the five-match series being locked at 1-1. On Day Four of the match at the Gabba, Akash Deep sliced a Pat Cummins delivery over the gully for a boundary, which helped India avoid the follow-on, leading to jubilant celebrations in the dressing room by captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli.
While many in the Australian camp were surprised by it, Shastri felt there was nothing bad about it. “You should celebrate. It required a lot of character from the last pair with 35-36 runs needed. That celebration showed they knew the importance of that effort within the dressing room in the context of the series.”
“It’s one thing following-on, it’s one thing then again being 2-3 down as opposed to, you going ahead and rattling the Australian top-order. It is fully justified,” said Shastri on the ICC Review show.
Talking about the scenes in Brisbane, Shastri recalled the 89-run partnership between Bumrah and Mohammed Shami at the Lord’s during the 2021 series against England, a match which India eventually won. He also highlighted the importance of lower-order bailing India out of tough situations.
“It reminded me of the celebration, in COVID times when Jasprit and Mohammed Shami were involved in a partnership at the Lord’s, which turned the game on its head. England were odds-on favourites on the final day to win the Test. And that partnership, I think of about 80 or 90, suddenly turned the game on its head, and by the end of the day, India had won the Test match.”
“When the tail-enders are stubborn, they fight it out there. It makes a massive difference. It did it on the last tour. When Ashwin and Hanuma Vihari batted the whole of the last session to save the game, going into the Gabba and then winning the series.”
With the five-match series tied at 1-1 ahead of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, Shastri feels the fight shown by India in avoiding the follow-on at Brisbane will serve as a big boost to the visitors ahead of the crunch games.
“It’ll lift the Indian team. And for me, the series is on a level peg now and India might just be calling the shots. Massive. They would give anything for a 1-1 result. The first Test was in Perth, the second Testa day-nighter in Adelaide, and then the third Test was in Brisbane. Any overseas team will, you know, settle for a 1-1 score because come Melbourne, come Sydney, I think India will be powerful.”
“They’ve been kept in this series single-handedly by Jasprit Bumrah. If the big boys wake up, and step up to the plate, which I just get the gut feeling they will, then Australia have a problem on their hands. Yeah, they got out of jail but they are not on bail. They are free birds in Melbourne. They can do what they want and come and attack Australia on Boxing Day,” he concluded.
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