A victory founded on elegance, resistance and showmanship: This was Test cricket in all its glory

NICK FRIEND: The headlines will belong to Rishabh Pant, whose daring genius was central to what transpired in Brisbane. But without Cheteshwar Pujara’s inherent sense of gladiator, none of this would have been possible

Between the elegance of Shubman Gill, the defiance of Cheteshwar Pujara and the showmanship of Rishabh Pant, India produced a miracle in the image of Test cricket at its very best.

The greatest triumphs are so often built on foundations of adversity, and this tour provided more than most. This result – a series victory and a first Australian defeat in Brisbane for 32 years – was constructed amid a backdrop of injuries, racial abuse and the absence of a talismanic captain.

Virat Kohli left for home and paternity leave following the humiliation of a dismal defeat at Adelaide, where he could do little to prevent a staggering collapse to the fourth-lowest total in history. And in that moment, the tourists were written off: damaged emotionally by the manner of their defeat, apparently, and without the ICC cricketer of the decade to help rectify the situation.

But from then on, India went unbeaten; with Ajinkya Rahane at the helm – an understated, high-class leader, they pulled off a memorable win to level the series in Melbourne, before events conspired in Sydney to restrict them to a draw achieved with a mounting list of wounded soldiers.

Fielding their last men standing in Brisbane, just making a fist of it seemed like an appropriate starting point at a venue where the hosts – at full strength – are so dominant and who won an important toss.

A week beforehand at the SCG, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Hanuma Vihari and Ravindra Jadeja had joined Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and KL Rahul in having their tours ended early.

Even Pant and Mayank Agarwal, patched up to attain godlike status at The Gabba, were playing through the pain barrier.

Months ago, before setting off from India, Varun Chakravarthy, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rohit Sharma were early casualties, though Sharma would belatedly arrive in time to provide crucial reinforcements to an ailing traveling party.

^{India celebrate a thoroughly remarkable victory}

But among the wonders of this series – one of the greatest in Test history – were the unfailing powers of recovery displayed by the visitors, who simply refused to lie down. If this was a boxing match, Shane Warne declared on the penultimate morning of the decider, India would win on points. Little did he know then that they would ultimately throw the knockout punch for good measure. They were Rocky, tossed onto the canvas and sat down by Drago’s left hook, but gaining strength in every setback.

When Prithvi Shaw was dropped following the first Test, he was replaced by Gill, a star of the present as much as the future.

When Wriddhiman Saha was left out at the MCG, Rishabh Pant emerged to produce two innings for consideration among the pantheon of all-timers.

His drive through mid-off to clinch victory on Tuesday brought extraordinary scenes of joy – the kind so rarely seen in Test cricket, with his teammates rushing onto the pitch in a manner more readily associated with the white-ball game, where so many of this team have done their best work. It looked like the conclusion of an IPL cliff-hanger. Perhaps, though, given all for which Pant stands, that was a fitting image: this insatiably aggressive, thrillingly talented new-era match-winner confirming his status as a beast of the Test game.

When Kohli departed, Jadeja was shoehorned into the middle order but proved his worth as a fine all-round cricketer once again.

^{Cheteshwar Pujara was a heroic figure for India}

Shami’s injury – one of so many body-blows worn in the face of Australia’s terrific armada of fast men – opened the door for Mohammed Siraj, a hero of the series in more ways than one. His father passed away once he had landed in Australia, while he would later be the subject of alleged racial abuse in Sydney. But with 13 wickets in three Tests, he lived out his father’s dream.

When Yadav became the next seamer to break down, Navdeep Saini was wheeled out.

And then, with the series on the line, Jadeja, Ashwin, Bumrah and Vihari all broke. Jokes were made about Ravi Shastri’s availability to make up the numbers for a first Test appearance since 1992.

Ultimately, a team was scraped together: Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan and Agarwal were called upon – only one of whom might reasonably have anticipated playing some role in the red-ball series before it began.

For Sundar, it marked a return to first-class cricket for the first time since November 2017. For India, another record: no away team had ever won a Test series fielding 20 players across a series.

But as the final day wore on in Brisbane, those who had opted against believing were compelled to change tack.

^{Rishabh Pant and Mohammed Siraj lead the celebrations}

The headlines will belong to Pant, whose daring genius was central to what transpired. But without Pujara’s inherent sense of gladiator, none of this would have been possible. He didn’t just blunt the Australian attack; rather, he utterly deflated Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc of their energy. A trio so often so penetrative, but the door shut on them by a fabulous player who knows the worth of his unglamorous job. While strike rates were quoted and pedestrianism criticised, he never took an eye off his raison d’être: resistance. He was a heroic symbol of courage and commitment to the cause.

Every time he was hit – and he was struck 11 times in 211 gruelling deliveries – he smiled back politely as if it were the slightest of bother. When the nastiest blow forced him temporarily to burst from his shell with an unseemly flinch and a throw of his bat, he picked it up after composing himself and pushed the next ball back down the pitch, presenting a full face of cojones.

As social media was keen to point out, all this followed Tim Paine’s sledge in the third Test – that he could scarcely wait to see Ashwin at The Gabbatoir, where Australia quite simply do not lose. It was captured on the stump microphones at the time, and from that moment there was always a nagging feeling that his words – for which he later apologised – would either ring true in Australian victory or come back to bite him. Ultimately, it was the latter: a place in infamy for an almighty self-own.

Ashwin would miss out with a back spasm but with his feet up, he could sit and watch on with Kohli, Bumrah, Vihari, Jadeja, Sharma, Shami, Yadav and Rahul as a young side cobbled together with so little in its favour produced a performance for the ages to retain a trophy. A trophy that – just three days into the series – looked to have slipped from their grasp.