Whenever their pride has been wounded, India have fought back.

They did so after the ignominy of being bowled out for 42 at Lord’s in the summer of 1974. Tiger Pataudi, called back from the cold as captain, inspired the side to stand tall against Clive Lloyd’s West Indies, losing a closely fought series 2-3 in the winter of that year. The Indians played heroic cricket to post back-to-back wins at Calcutta and Madras.

They found further redemption when, led by spin wizard Bishan Singh Bedi, they chased down an improbable target of 403 at Port-of-Spain in the summer of 1976. It forced Lloyd to change tactics for West Indies cricket, with pace being his weapon of choice hereon.

They would redeem themselves again in 2001 when Sourav Ganguly, leading a team shaken by the match-fixing scandal, showed that the fight could be taken to the opponents, even if the adversary happened to be the best side in the world. India would go on to win the series, dubbed as “the final frontier” for Steve Waugh’s marauding Australians.

They pulled it off again in Chennai in December 2008, weeks after the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai that had wounded the nation. The combined heroics of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team chase down 387 for victory against Kevin Pietersen’s Englishmen.

They have done so again now, a month to the day India’s cricketing pride had suffered a massive dent. An hour or two of brain-fade moments at Adelaide saw the team crashing to their lowest ever Test innings score of 36, pundits predicting how a 4-0 thrashing was inevitable. Especially with their talismanic captain Virat Kohli returning home on paternity leave and injuries dogging the side.

But India embraced redemption, not despair.

Ajinkya Rahane, quiet, unassuming, your everyday good-natured middle class lad entrusted with the job of leading the team, displayed steely resolve as he set the course for the comeback with a gritty century in Melbourne. He then inspired his bowlers to bowl their hearts out as India went on to win the match and square the series.

“He is a shrewd leader who has a good understanding and reading of the game. His composure in the middle helped the debutants and bowlers as well. He was a calming influence,” head coach Ravi Shastri said of Rahane after the MCG victory.

For the captain himself, it’s more about the collective. “It’s all about bowling in partnerships…. They focused on putting in a collective effort for the team,” he said

On Tuesday, It was much like what Winston Churchill had done many years ago when the Nazis had overrun Europe. Churchill, though not as self-effacing as Rahane, had used language to rouse the collective fighting spirit he believed was still alive in the British people.

“If you’re going through hell, keep going,” the then British Prime Minister had exhorted.

He had later explained his speeches thus: “It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.”

All these captains gave the roar and the players had responded. But what makes Tuesday’s victory even more special is that it has come in the face of extreme adversity. Tiger Pataudi and Bedi had a Gundappa Viswanath and a Sunil Gavaskar, not to mention the spin legends, to count upon; the Port-of-Spain chase was led by Gavaskar, Viswanath, Mohinder Amarnath and a young Brijesh Patel; Sourav’s side had Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman, while Dhoni had a Sehwag in his ranks.

Rahane had to bank on the rookies, injuries having taken their toll. The seniors, like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin, took it on their chin and on their bodies everything the Aussies hurled at them — the hurtling cricket ball, behind-the-stump abuse or racial taunt from the stands.

Somewhere along the way they had hardened, an audacious and determined bunch forged through the smithy of an epic survival at Sydney. So by the time they touched down in Brisbane, they were ready.

This audacious character was on show on Tuesday when debutant Washington Sundar nonchalantly hooked Pat Cummins for six and then sliced the very next delivery for four on the off side with India still over 40 runs away from victory.

With hearts of lions, their collective roar was enough to tame the Australians in their own den. What began with a whimper for India has ended with a bang. The agony of Adelaide found catharsis at the Gabba.