The biggest Turnaround of this century - India in Australia 2020

"Turnaround will never happen until you learn to thrive in the midst of adversity" - Jamelle Sanders.

It will be right to say that what happened in Adelaide, Australia was the King of Adversity! 36 All Out with Virat Kohli in the team and any team will get completely demotivated.

We saw people like Michael Vaughan, Ricky Ponting, Brad Haddin, Michael Clarke, Mark Waugh and the others predict whitewash with score line of 4-0 and then came the Turnaround!

Turnarounds can never be predicted. Which is why they are called turnarounds.

There were two interesting facets of this turnaround. First is the leadership!

I would like to quote Braden Douglas - "In times of crisis, leaders need to focus on the 4Cs - Calm, Clarity, Communication and Consistency." And we really had just the leader - Ajinkya Madhukar Rahane!

When we saw Rahane on television, not even once did he seem to be under any kind of pressure, he was the epitome of calm with immense clarity in what he wanted - Those bowling changes, those field placements, who should be standing in which position - It was all an amazing surprise for all us Indian cricket lovers.

Even when we talk about Communication - It was clear how good the communication was within the team, everyone knew their role. From Rahane in Melbourne to Jadeja in Sydney, From Hanuma Vihari and Ravi Ashwin in Sydney to Washington and Shardul in Brisbane. You saw effective communication of roles and amazing consistency in attitude, grit and performance by team India and their amazing Captain!

What was most interesting to see was the second facet of this turnaround - The guys who were involved in the turnaround of this series - they have scripted amazing turnarounds in their real lives too.

Natarajan is the son of a loom worker who had no money for luxuries like cricket gear and shoes. For many years, Natarajan had to think a hundred times before investing in new shoes. His mother cried when she saw him representing India on TV. His wife gave birth to their son when Natarajan was playing IPL in UAE. He hasn’t even seen him yet because he went straight to Australia in a bio bubble.

Shardul Thakur battled obesity to play for Mumbai and thereafter IPL. No less than Sachin Tendulkar advised him to lose weight for a great cricketing career ahead of him.

Washington Sundar’s father - Sundar, was a talented cricketer who was sponsored by his rich neighbor throughout his local cricketing life. His name was Washington. The man passed away just before Sundar’s second son was born. Sundar named his son Washington as a tribute to his benefactor.

Just imagine you have been in the bio bubble with no chance to play and then all of a sudden you have been asked to play a test match at a place where Australia has never lost in the last 30 odd years! All the three Sundar, Thakur and Natarajan went through this and performed exceptionally!!

Hanuma Vihari - Wow! I mean wow! What an innings at Sydney. A lot of people might not know this but as a 12-year-old, Vihari batted to make an unbeaten 82 for his school - St Andrew's - two days after his father had passed away. This tell you a lot about how focused and dedicated this guy is. 23 from 161 Balls and that partnership with Ashwin with hamstring completely gone is an effort that I have no words to praise. It is the reason why we have been able to reach at this stage in the series. Incredible effort!

Mohammed Siraj rose to become India’s new ball bowler despite being born to a poor rickshaw driver. His father died and he couldn’t perform his last rites as he was in Australia on national duty. 5 wickets on Debut and 5 wickets at Brisbane. The way Warner was jumping around was a site to see!

Navdeep Saini’s father was a government driver and could not afford expensive cricket coaching for his son. So Saini played exhibition matches on tennis ball at Rs.300 a match to fund his dreams.

Shubman Gill - How can we forget him? What a debut series! From a small town of Fazilika in Punjab, his father wanted to be a cricketer but due to lack of opportunity decided to make his son a successful one and how his dream has come true!

All these guys came together as debutants / near-debutants and have turned this series on its head.

All their lives they were waiting for this moment in their cricketing career. All their failures, all their struggles, all their doubts and all their insecurities - all that was settled once and for all in this Test series. When presented with an opportunity, they fired themselves up and attacked Australia with all guns blazing.

In this series, more than any other Test series I have seen in my life, the Indian Cricket team has proven their naysayers wrong. They have sustained tremendous pressure and taken hard knocks all over their bodies against one of the best Australian attack ever. And by doing so, they have made us realise that while 5 hour IPL matches can create instant celebrities, Test Cricket, which stretches over five days, creates real heroes.

It has really been a pleasure to see this turnaround and it will be talked about in many many years to come!

Thank you Team India