The Indian team scripted a brilliant series win against Australia away from home after beating the hosts in the final Test in Brisbane. While India won the second and fourth Test, they were bundled out for 36 in the second innings of the first encounter. Talking about the same, India fielding coach R Sridhar revealed how Virat Kohli’s midnight chat helped the team regain confidence.
Speaking on Ravichandran Ashwin’s YouTube channel, Sridhar said: “It was midnight, around 12.30 am, the night we lost the Adelaide Test. Virat Kohli messaged me: ‘What are you doing?’ I was shocked. I thought ‘why is he messaging at this time?’ I told him ‘head coach (Ravi Shastri), myself, Bharat Arun and Vikram Rathour are sitting together’. He said, ‘I’ll also join you’. I said, ‘no problem, come over.’
“He came there and all of us started discussing. That’s where ‘Mission Melbourne’ began. Shastri made a point there: ‘This 36, wear it like a badge! This 36 is what will make this team great’,” said Sridhar.
“We were slightly confused but then we started talking about the decisions we’d have to take. Then Virat called Ajinkya the next morning and we had a very good discussion. After a 36 all-out, usually, teams would strengthen their batting. But Ravi Shastri, Virat, and Ajinkya decided to strengthen the bowling. That’s how we replaced Virat with Ravindra Jadeja, and it was a masterstroke,” concluded Sridhar.
India rode on Rahane’s ton and some responsible batting from Shubman Gill to win the second match while ended the second clash in a draw, courtesy some fine batting from Rishabh Pant, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari and R Ashwin. The two teams then met in Brisbane for the decider and won the match by 3 wickets to clinch the series and defended the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
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