36 all out at Adelaide and every cricket expert around the world was convinced that India was going to be crushed 4-0 by the Australians. Injury concerns around, captain missing the series, opening combination changed mid-way, everything looked to be going the other way for India.
With a combined experience of just 8 tests, the Indian bowling attack in the deciding test was inexperienced to put it politely. However, led by Mohammed Siraj, they were able to take 20 wickets even after losing Navdeep Saini fairly early in the contest.
Every player's contribution led to a record shattering chase by India, ultimately leading to one of the greatest Test Series victories of all time on foreign soil.
Here are some of India's greatest test series victories overseas:
Steve Smith and David Warner were not in the side during the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar trophy owing to the ban imposed on them after the Sandpaper gate scandal. This presented India an opportunity to win a test series down under for the first time ever. Incredible performances by Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant with the bat ensured that India reach big totals and rest was taken care of by Jasprit Bumrah who took 21 wickets in the series. India won the series 2-1.
New Zealand is always a tough place to win tests for the visiting teams, especially for the teams from the Indian Subcontinent as the swing, pace and bounce on top of a well-balanced Kiwi side is never easy to deal with. But India won the first test on the tour courtesy 6/63 from Harbhajan Singh. Although, Kiwis made a terrific comeback in the second test where Gautam Gambhir stood like a wall and defied New Zealand what should have been an easy win. GG batted for 11 hours which helped India draw the game. The third and final test of the series saw another dominant performance from India but New Zealand somehow managed to draw the game after losing 8 wickets in the final innings.
After a disastrous 50-over World Cup in 2007, there were several speculations regarding the performances of India's experienced players. However, in the 2007 England tour, almost every player contributed to the historic and much needed series win. Interestingly, only Anil Kumble was able to reach the three-figure mark with the bat for India in the series. First test was a nail biter where MS Dhoni and Sreesanth defied England an easy win and in the second test, India demolished the English batting line up in the final innings after they were heading for a comfortable draw. This is the beauty of test cricket, where there are more twist and turns than in a Nolan flick. .
India had the perfect medium pace bowling attack for English conditions. Chetan Sharma, Kapil Dev, Roger Binny, Madan Lal and Mahendar Sharma bowled exceptionally well and led India to a historic 2-0 series win. Dilip Vengsarkar with the bat made life difficult for English bowlers and despite the fact that many big names were missing from the English side, including Sir Ian Botham, this one has to be one of India's greatest test series wins as it remained India’s only overseas series win outside the subcontinent between 1971 and 2005.
The Ajit Wadekar-led Indian side battled it out on dead pitches in the series. This was also the debut series for the little master Sunil Gavaskar. He amassed 774 runs in the series. India ended up defeating West Indies in the second test. This was the first time that India defeated West Indies in a test series.
