India playing in Australia against their full-strength side, without Ishant Sharma (leader of the bowling attack), without Virat Kohli (after the first Test), forget winning, even if they draw a game, would be a big achievement. After Kohli left, and India suffered an embarrassing loss at the hands of the hosts, these murmers got strong. 4-0 was on their minds even before the series got over, they had already predicted a whitewash for the deflated Indian side. But how many predictions do come right?
This team India just defied all those odds, changed every thought, used their grit and determination to full-strength to surpass every challenge thrown at them and defeated them at their own backyard. So much so, that the hosts lost the first Test at their 'Gabbatoire' - the fortress - after 1988, a gap of over 32 years.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took to Twitter after the historic series victory and put pictures of some of the quotes that suggested Australia were going to beat India handsomely, along with the picture of the Indian team with the winning Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Ashwin captioned the post saying, "LHS ( not = ) RHS ! Yours happily, India tour of OZ 2020/21, Humbled by all the love and support we have received over the last 4 weeks!"
Among these many voices were the famous cricketers from Australia and England.
The infamous Michael Vaughan, who has been criticised in the past for his opinions on social media had received flak for predicting Australia's 4-0 victory against India. After the loss in the Adelaide Test, Vaughan's opinion had gained strength and he further announced it, exactly a month ago. But had to chew his words back, a month later.
Former Australian captains Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke, Mark Waugh and former wicket-keeper batsman Brad Haddin, all of them after seeing India's performance in the first Test and departure of virat Kohli thought that India's only chance of winning a game in the four-match series was in Adelaide and after that match, without Kohli, there was no one to pick them up and they couldn't see India fight back after that humiliating loss.
However, all of them proved to be wrong as nothing of that sort took place instead India romped past every hurdle in their way to win two Tests - at MCG and the Gabba - and draw the Test at SCG, even after they faced abuse from the crowd and three players were injured during the game.
India beat Australia 2-1 to clinch the Border Gavaskar Trophy and surpass Australia both in the ICC Test Rankings and in the World Test Championship Points table.
