India registered their maiden Test win at Gabba. Before this India had played five games, losing four of them and the one played in 2003-04 ended up in a draw. In the decider at Gabba, Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar’s partnership made sure the hosts did not have much room for a large first-innings lead. Mohammad Siraj’s five-for and half-centuries from Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill guided India to their win and breaching the Gabba fortress.
“Australia’s fortress”- as Gabba was popularly called before the breaching. Australia had not lost a Test match at Gabba since 1988. In 1988 West Indies defeated the hosts by nine wickets in Brisbane after that Australia had built up a fortress that is now blurred.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy was inaugurated in 1996 named after Sunil Gavaskar and Alan Border. No team could win three consecutive Border-Gavaskar series before the latest series. India have grabbed the unique hat-trick after winning the recent Border-Gavaskar series Down Under. They defeated the Aussies in 2016-17, 2018-19 and 2020-21. In the last match in the 2016-17 Border-Gavaskar trophy Rahane made his debut as the captain and won the decider. While in the 2020-21 series, sparring the first match, Rahane led the team.
Pant has become the only Indian wicketkeeper-batsman with three 50+ scores in Test matches Down Under. In the last series he had scored a ton at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In this series he stamped a match-saving 97 at the SCG and an unbeaten 89 at the Gabba.
Playing 27 innings, Pant has become the fastest wicket-keeper to reach 1000 Test runs.
At Gabba Shardul Thakur and Washinton Sundar stitched the highest seventh-wicket partnership for India. They knitted a 123 run stand for India.
The nightmarish incident that is now overshadowed by the heroism is India’s 36 all out in Adelaide. They marked their lowest Test total.
