India Test team in 2021: Conquering unchartered frontiers

December 30, 2014. India saved a Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before they came in for a shock. Captain MS Dhoni announced that he would no longer play Test cricket.

Virat Kohli was appointed the full-time captain, and one of the first statements the Delhi player made after taking over the reins was:

“I strongly want to see the Indian team dominate for at least five or six years. We certainly have the talent. We certainly have the ability. All that it will take is how you manage that and keep them together."

Exactly seven years later, India breached another fortress in Centurion. In the process, they capped off a fairytale year that saw them script four memorable Test wins in SENA countries.

In the history of Indian Test cricket, 2021 will always find a place in the uppermost echelons of stellar achievements scripted by the team. Four of the eight wins came away from home.

They say fairy tales don't happen in sport. That is exactly why this year will always be remembered as one when India kept conquering unchartered frontiers. It was a year when the top Test team in the world kept transcending the limits of what is achievable on a cricket field.

It all started at the SCG

Let's rewind the clock to January.

Following the shambles of 36 all out in Adelaide, India showed remarkable character despite the absence of Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma to script a heist at the MCG. Stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane led from the front with a scintillating hundred.

Having scripted a brilliant comeback in Melbourne, one question that was on everyone's mind was "Could India repeat the same in Sydney?"

Fairy tales don't happen twice, do they? "Surely, wheels have started to come off," was the general feeling as the visitors capitulated to 244 in response to Australia's 338.

What made things even worse were the injuries sustained by Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant while batting. India were set a daunting fourth-innings target of 406. With the visitors losing three quick wickets at the score of 102, it looked like Australia would take a 2-1 lead in the series.

However, Pant, Cheteshwar Pujara, Haunuma Vihari and R Ashwin had other ideas. Despite battling an injury, Pant launched a stunning counterattack on the Australian bowling attack, smashing a brutal 118-ball 97.

Pant and Pujara (77 off 205) gave India hope of an unlikely win. However, their dismissals in the second session once again pegged back the visitors.

With Jadeja injured and Vihari and Ashwin also battling injuries, it appeared to be a bridge too far for India to save the game. However, Vihari (23* off 161) and Ashwin (39* off 128) didn't think likewise.

The duo batted as if their lives depended on it. They batted out more than 50 overs to eke out a memorable draw to keep the series alive.

India breach Fortress Gabba

Australia vs India: 4th Test: Day 5

Things got even worse for India in the build-up to the fourth Test at the Gabba. They lost the services of Jasprit Bumrah, Ashwin and Jadeja, three key bowlers.

For the series decider, the visitors' bowling attack comprised two-Test old Mohammed Siraj, net bowler T Natarajan, one-Test old Shardul Thakur and debutant Washington Sundar.

"There is no chance in hell of us taking 20 wickets in this Test, let alone outbowling the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Lyon and John Hazlewood," must have been the collective thought of Indian fans as Rahane and co took the field on the opening day.

Fairy tale can't happen thrice, can it? Well, it did. The Indian bowlers outbowled their Australian counterparts. Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant - coupled with the grit and bloody-mindedness of Pujara - helped achieve the unthinkable.

A young, unfancied India won at the Gabba to script consecutive series wins in Australia. It was the first time Australia lost a Test at the venue in nearly three decades.

India then qualified for the World Test Championship final by beating England 3-1 on home soil. However, their dream of becoming the first team to win the Test championship was ended by New Zealand in a rain-marred final in Southampton.

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India shrug off WTC final disappointment by conquering London

Team India scripted memorable Test wins in London [Image- Twitter]

Kohli's men shrugged off the loss in the WTC final by conquering London - Lord's and the Oval - to take a 2-1 lead against England in the five-match series.

The success was built on the opening duo of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. They blunted out the English seamers in the first innings of the Lord's Test and the third innings of the Oval Test to make up for the poor form of the middle order. The relentless seam-bowling attack, which unleashed sustained hell on the English batting unit then took over.

KL Rahul smashed a brilliant 129 at Lord's while the likes of Pujara, Rahane and the duo of Mohammed Shami and Bumrah chipped in with crucial contributions in the second. The Indian seamers then ran through the home side's batting unit in less than 60 overs to help the visitors go 1-0 up.

India lost the next Test convincingly at Headingley. When they were reduced to 127-7 on the opening day of the Oval Test, it looked all doom and gloom for Kohli's men.

A chance of becoming the first Asian team to win a Test series in Australia and England was hanging by a bare thread. It was then when Shardul Thakur launched a stunning assault on English bowlers to take India to 191. India then conceded a 99-run first-innings lead.

You don't win a lot of overseas Tests after conceding a sizable lead in the first innings. But then we are living in insane times, where most things don't make sense; do they?

It didn't make sense at the Oval either. India, riding on another magnificent hundred by Rohit Sharma and handy contributions by other batters, turned the tables on England by racking up 466 runs in their second innings.

England started off brilliantly in response. Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed stitched together 100 runs for the first wicket. With the pitch looking benign, it looked as if the hosts would play out a draw.

Enter Jasprit Bumrah. The champion pacer, en-route to his 100th Test wicket bowled a spell for the ages. He knocked over Ollie Pope and Jonny Bairstow to open the floodgates for his team.

India eventually knocked over England for 210 to claim their first win at the Oval since 1971.

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India breach another fortress in Centurion to cap off a fairy-tale year

Following another Test series win at home - against New Zealand - India breached another fortress - Centurion - to become the first Asian team to win at the venue.

Again, it was the opening partnership led by centurion Rahul, which laid the platform for a 113-run win. Rahul, along with Mayank Agarwal, blunted the new ball on the opening day by racking up a 117-run stand.

While India suffered a middle order collapse, their world-class seam-bowling attack took over. Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj knocked over the Proteas twice in the space of three days.

It was India's fourth Test win in SENA countries this year and ninth since the start of 2018. To understand the magnitude of the achievement, consider this fact: India managed just nine wins in these countries between 1990 and 2017.

India ended the year with zero series defeats and as many as eight wins - the joint-second most in their illustrious Test history.

The fact that 50% of the wins came away from home and amid some pretty desperate situations, it is fitting to say that it was truly a fairy-tale year for Indian cricket.

Virat Kohli now has the most Test wins as an Indian captain in every nation barring New Zealand. It is fitting that the historic win in Centurion came exactly seven years to the day when he was officially appointed India's Test captain.

This wasn't a fairy-tale year for only the Indian team but also for its billions of supporters. They have, over the years, sat through numerous instances where the team either squandered a match-winning position or got hammered with ruthless disdain.

The scars of Johannesburg 1997, Melbourne 2003, Sydney 2004, Cape Town 2007, 2011 and 2018, series whitewashes in England and Australia in 2011-12, Adelaide 2014, Wellington 2014 and Edgbaston 2018 may never go away. However, the staggering exploits of the team in 2021 suggest that such defeats may not happen too frequently in the near future.