Kohli's Aussie feats unlikely to be emulated soon: Shastri

Ravi Shastri has witnessed more than his share of cricket, and much of it has been played in Australia.

As a somewhat dour but dependable member of India's national team for more than a decade from 1981, he was part of two Test tours and twice as many ODI campaigns down under before returning in subsequent years as a mellifluous television commentator, team director and (currently) senior coach.

He even posted his highest Test score (206) at the Sydney Cricket Ground, where he took to young bottle-blonde leg-spinner Shane Warne in his maiden Test outing, and claimed career-best ODI bowling figures of 5-15 in destroying Australia with his left-arm spin on a Perth pitch habitually haunted by quicks.

But the 58-year-old believes the history achieved by the contemporary India Test team under the leadership of Virat Kohli – who, with Shastri at his side, oversaw the nation's first series win on Australia's patch two summers ago – might never be repeated.

Shastri was back at the SCG on Wednesday, ostensibly to hone India's preparation for the third Vodafone Series Test starting on Thursday but also to launch a new book that chronicles India's Test cricket battles in Australia across more than seven decades.

It's a journey that began in 1947, when India's inaugural Test visit under captain Lala Amarnath ran into an Australia outfit led by Don Bradman who warmed up for his final and most fabled Ashes series by peeling off scores of 185, 13, 132, 127no, 201 and 57 (retired hurt).

Needless to say, India were hammered in all but the rain-ruined second Test at the SCG that summer, and it would be a further 30 years – and a seismic split in Australia cricket that saw the best players defect to Kerry Packer's breakaway competition – before India claimed a Test win in this country.

The pair of Test tours in which Shastri featured – three turgid draws in 1985-86 and a 2-0 win to Australia despite his batting heroics in 1991-92 – yielded no joy for India.

Image Id: D01C41109A444526AD709EF40AA076D8 Image Caption: Ravi Shastri in action against Australia // Supplied

And even though outfits gilded by great names the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh proved increasingly competitive either side of the millennium, it was Kohli's men who finally found the elusive formula.

Shastri makes clear the significance of that 2-1 series triumph, built on the batting brilliance of Cheteshwar Pujara as well as Kohli's combative captaincy, in his foreword for the book 'India's 71-Year Test: The Journey to Triumph in Australia' written by veteran India cricket scribe R Kaushik.

"The satisfaction gained in registering India's first series win in Australia after 71 years of heartbreak was immense," Shastri says in the book which is the latest in a series of publications from the Bradman Museum.

"I can't see Virat's feat of winning against Australia both at home and away being emulated by another Indian captain for a very long time.

"The great thing about success in Australia is that it doesn't come easily.

"As a professional sportsperson, you know that when you win the hard way, you command respect.

"Indian teams have done well in Australia since the turn of the (21st) century, but didn't have the depth of fast-bowling resources.

"That's why this Indian team commanded respect from the hard-to-please Aussies like few others in the past."

'India's 71-Year Test: The Journey to Triumph in Australia' features more than 200 photographs, many of which were found languishing in the USA and purchased by former Australia Test opener and ex-Cricket Australia chair Wally Edwards who donated them to the Bradman Museum collection.

It also follows the release earlier this summer of other texts published by Churchill Press and the Bradman Museum: 'Cricket – The Aussie Way with Justin Langer', 'Clearing Boundaries – The Rise of Australian Women's Cricket' and 'Warne Worn – The Baggy Green that Rallied Australia'.

In addition to launching the book, Shastri also unveiled a portrait of his former India captain and long-time ally Sunil Gavaskar that will be hung at the Bradman Museum in Bowral as part of its 'Greats of the Game' series.

Gavaskar was a member of the only other India touring team to claim two victories in a Test series in Australia, when they came from 0-2 down to almost snatch success in the five-match campaign against Bob Simpson's revamped side that did much to resuscitate 'establishment' cricket in 1977-78.

But Gavaskar also learned, as did Shastri, from bitter experience the toll extracted by playing in Australia, and he enjoyed just one more Test win in his subsequent two tours down under in 1980-81 and 1985-86.

"From experience, I can state emphatically there is no such entity as a weak Australian side, especially in their own backyard," Shastri wrote in his foreword.

"Anyone who thinks otherwise is uninformed.

"Australians hate losing and it's a thought process entertained not just by the 11 on the field, but the whole nation, the fans and the media.

"When a team tours Australia there is a combined assault like no other. Remember that, and remember that again."

Books mentioned above are due for release this summer and will be available at book stores Australia-wide as well as online at bradman.com.au

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: India won by eight wickets

Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT