India defeated Australia in Australia for the first time in purest form of cricket. Indian cricket team under Virat Kohli registered a historic 2-1 series triumph in Whites. After India’s magnificent triumph, head coach Ravi Shastri termed it as a bigger achievement than the 1983 World Cup title victory.
“I will tell you how satisfying it is for me. World Cup 1983, World Championship of Cricket 1985 – this is as big, or even bigger, because it is in the truest (Test) format of the game. It’s Test cricket, which is meant to be the toughest,” Shastri had said.
He was lambasted for undermining the importance of World Cup win in England. In an interview with Cricbuzz, he refused to move away from his earlier stand and stood by what he had said in Australia.
“In 1983, I was in the dressing room. In 1985, I was in the dressing room. In 2018-19, I was in the dressing room. Why do I rate this? Because Test cricket is the purest form and we came to Australia as heavy weight champions of Test cricket, home and away. We were not favourites – no team can come to Australia as favourites because Australia will chew them out. But we were not underdogs to come and surprise them either. We came as number one Test side and we played as the number one Test side, and we won,” Shastri said.