Debutants Shubman Gill and Mohammed Siraj impressed in India’s triumph at the MCG, skipper Ajinkya Rahane attributing their success to their experience in first-class cricket and head coach Ravi Shastri crediting the IPL.

Both Shubman and Siraj did not let the Adelaide debacle unnerve them as they made their Test debut for India.

Rahane attributed their mindset to the years they spent in first-class cricket.

“Shubman has done well in first-class cricket and so has Siraj, who bowled with a lot of discipline. As debutants, sometimes you can get carried away, but guys who have played first-class cricket for four-five years know what to do. That makes a captain’s job easier,” Rahane said during the post-match presentation after India’s eight-wicket win.

Shastri though gave all the credit to the IPL for making players ready for international cricket.

Addressing the media during a virtual conference, Shastri stated: “A lot has to do with the IPL. The fact that they share the dressing room with international players and rub shoulders with the best, that complex factor disappears very quickly.”

However, Shastri and Rahane seemed to be on the same page on continuing with five bowlers going forward. “We’ll stick to five bowlers,” the head coach said, lauding the perfect execution by the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.

“The five bowling options worked out really well. We were thinking of one all-rounder, and Jadeja played that role really well,” said Rahane, whose determined century in the first innings was described by Shastri as the “turning point of the game”.

Rohit availability

A call on the availability of Rohit Sharma, who comes out of quarantine on Wednesday, will be taken after assessing his condition, Shastri said.

“We have to see how he feels before we take the call,” he added.

Stat-o-sphere

India’s win at MCG was...

⦾ 158th Test victory

⦾ 8th in their 50th match in Australia

⦾ 52nd away Test victory

⦾ 29th vs Aus in 100th head-to-head Test

⦾ 1st Test win in 2020

⦾ This was India’s fourth Test victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (won in 1977-78, 1981, 2018, 2020) — the maximum wins at any overseas ground. Port of Spain & Kingston in the Caribbean and Colombo SSC in Sri Lanka have seen three Test wins for India.

⦾ Since the beginning of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in October 1996, India have held the upper hand against Australia

⦾ Tests: 50 l India: 21l Australia: 19

⦾ Drawn: 10

⦾ There are only two previous instances of teams coming back from 0-1 down to win the second Test in Australia in the last 50 years. West Indies did it in 1975-76 (WACA) and New Zealand in 2011 (Hobart).

⦾ Ajinkya Rahane has now won all his three Tests as captain. Among Indians, only MS Dhoni has a better record, winning his first four Tests as captain.

⦾ Rahane has equalled Don Bradman in scoring the most number of hundreds — 4 — in Tests where the opposition team were bowled out twice without anyone reaching fifty. Colin Cowdrey, Jacques Kallis & Gordon Greenidge have 3 each.

⦾ Ravichandran Ashwin now has dismissed the most number of left-handers — 192 — in Test cricket. He bettered Muttiah Muralitharan’s record.

⦾ India now have consecutive wins (2018 & 2020) in Boxing Day Tests in Australia. Previously, England had consecutive Boxing Day Test wins in 1982 (by 3 runs) and 1986 (by an innings and 14 runs).

⦾ Australia’s run rate in this series — 2.52 — is the lowest in a home series in the last 30 years.

Our Bureau/Mohandas Menon