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Opinion
Back in the summer of 2018, I wrote a piece questioning exactly what Australian fans were making of Virat Kohli, as he aggressively led his team to a series win on foreign soil.
For India, that series was historical.
After decades of handling themselves very well in the subcontinent, the batting genius that is Kohli brought a talented group to Australia with an absolute determination to win and more importantly, an intent to play the aggressor and bully the bully.
Kohli ran from the cordon like a man possessed when Australian wickets fell, he verballed every Australian that deserved it and was backed by a team that was not to be denied. The 2-1 series win was to be backed up with the exact same end of series result just two seasons later and firmly established a pattern of Indian dominance that began in 2016/17 and looks likely to continue on the current Australian tour.
Frankly, I loved seeing Kohli attack a group of men who had done the same to others for an extended period. Kohli was completely sick of being an honourable second, much like Australian captain Allan Border on the 1989 Ashes tour of England, the line simply had to be drawn in the sand. The past had to be remembered, used as a motivator and then forgotten.
Something tells me the Indian cricket team still draws on some of those experiences across the last decade and love the allegations of pitch and ball tampering that pop up, knowing that they finally have the mental edge over the Aussies.
No longer the captain, Kohli is still there and threatening to do something memorable in India at some stage during the current series.
In 2016/17, Kohli never really got going on home soil, in Australia during the 2018/19 campaign, he somewhat did, averaging over 40 and whilst his performances in 2020/21 were restricted to just the one Test, the men around him had been steeled to carry out the job that he had started years earlier.
Rohit Sharma is one of those men.
(Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)
The captain’s 120 in the Indian first innings was a masterclass and the only century made in the match. Sharma is the embodiment of the new breed of Indian cricketers, those no longer scarred by extended periods of chirp and defeat at the hands of Australian teams.
He represents the new India, one explained clearly by respected commentator Harsha Bhogle, who outlined the change in Indian thinking to Robert Craddock in his Cricket Legends series which regularly airs on Fox Sports.
Bhogle spoke of the powerful Indian economy, the growing refusal to be seen as anything less than equal and a flourishing confidence in all walks of life that lay behind the Indian cricket team moving from the nice bunch of chaps they were in the 1970’s and 80’s, to the team of ruthless winners that we see before us today.
Sourav Ganguly and others played key roles at the beginning of that transition, Kohli continued it and Sharma looks a strong leader ready to keep the Indian foot on the throat of the Aussies.
With Ravindra Jedeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Kohli by his side, there seems little hope for an Australian cricket team that was utterly awful in the first Test of the current series, outside of debutant Todd Murphy.
And you know what? For someone who has been critical of the threatening of batsmen’s limbs, the demands to opponents to ‘speak English’ on a cricket field, other acts of petulance that don’t sit well with the Australian psyche, the blatant cheating and subsequent inability of some to accept responsibility and move on, as well as a general culture of intimidation that escalates as soon as the Australians are challenged on the field, it is actually fun to see them getting their bums smacked by India.
It is Sharma’s men’s time in the sun and as they unceremoniously direct fallen batters to the pavilion, it almost seems that there is half of century of loss fuelling their passion to do so. As a fan, I find it enjoyable.
In recent times, the Australian cricket team has been one of which it has been difficult to be proud. In fact, I’m quite proud of India.
It is nice to see them dishing it up to the Australians after taking it for so long.