The Indian cricket team's ongoing tour of Australia in 2020/21 will always be remembered for the sheer grit and determination shown by the side amidst so many odds. The prime factor for India in this series has been the sheer magnitude of the injuries that have ravaged the Indian cricket team. Consider this one statistic. In the current series, only Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane have played in all four Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The loss of form of some players including Prithvi Shaw and Wriddhiman Saha forced some changes. However, the scale of injuries has been so immense that in the current series, India has played with 20 members of the squad which has never happened before.
In fact, out of the 20, India has handed a debut to five players in the Test series ever since Virat Kohli's departure after the Pink Ball Test in Adelaide. Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj made their debuts in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Mohammad Siraj was included as Mohammed Shami's tour ended with a fractured hand sustained in Adelaide while Shubman Gill was included only because Prithvi Shaw was out of form.
In Sydney, Navdeep Saini became the third Indian player to debut in the series after Umesh Yadav's tour ended due to a calf strain. In Brisbane, with the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Hanuma Vihari and Ravindra Jadeja all injured, India handed a debut to T Natarajan and Washington Sundar. The story of Washington Sundar is even more remarkable. He was a net bowler added as a back-up due to Ashwin's injury. However, for a bowler who would have normally struggled to make it to the India A red ball side, Sundar became the 301st player to play for India as Natarajan became the 300th.
The handing of five debutants in one series is a repeat of 25 years ago during the 1996 tour of England. In that series, India handed a debut to six players and they were Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Paras Mhambrey, Vikram Rathour, Venkatesh Prasad and Sunil Joshi. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid went on to become legends of the game while Vikram Rathour is currently the batting coach of the Indian cricket team.
Venkatesh Prasad has been coaching in parts while Sunil Joshi became the chairman of selectors for a brief period. Paras Mhambrey has been the bowling coach of the Under-19 and India A teams