In 1947 the first Indian Cricket team toured Australia under Lala Amarnath. The great Don Bradman led the Aussies. The Indian notched up some good performances with Vijay Hazare hitting a century in each innings (116 and 145) at Adelaide, yet the Aussies were much superior and won the series 4-0. This saga of defeats continued for seven decades till Virat Kohli's team made history by winning both the test series and the One-day matches in the recently concluded series down under. Outlook India has reported that the Indian team decimated the Aussies in both forms of the game and in the process created history

India win

India started their series with a three-match 20-20 series, and despite the superiority of the Indian team the Australians managed to draw the series.

All eyes were now on the 4-match test series. The Indians won 2-1, but the result may well have been 3-1 as Australia were saved by the rain which washed out the play during the last two days when Australia was facing a deficit of over 322 runs after India had built up a massive 622 for seven declared. Never the less the Indians were the better team and shaded the Australian team in all departments of the game.

Captain Kohli

The Indian success was built around the aggressive captaincy of Kohli and the solid innings played by Cheteshwar Pujara who hit three centuries and rightly won the man of the series award. For the first time, the Indian had matching pace bowlers who were as fast as their Australian counterparts.

Gone were the days when India never had a proper seam attack, and the spinners came on to bowl just after a few overs. The Indian pacers led by Mohammed Shami, Bumrah and Umesh Yadav rattled the Aussies on their own grounds.

One day victory

The Australians hoped to make amends in the three-match one -day series that followed the tests.

Despite winning the first match, the Aussies could not contain the Indian batting and lost 1-2. The Guardian has reported that the third one-dayer also went India's way when MS Dhoni the old warhorse with an 87 not out anchored a win. It was the first time India had won both the one day and test series in Australia. India who was on the verge of victory after seven decades have won and has delighted Indian fans and the BCCI has dished out a handsome bonus to all the players and the supporting staff including coach Ravi Shastri.

The role of Ravi Shastri in molding the Indian team is no less than the captaincy of Virat Kohli.

Controversy

There was a small controversy towards the fag end of the tour as two members of the Indian team Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul were sent home for making disparaging comments on women during chat show " Koffee with Karan." This was only the second time in82 years of test cricket that a player had been sent home from a tour. The last time was in 1936 when Lala Amarnath was sent back to India from England. However, that incident had political overtones, and Lala later captained India.

All said and done the victory down under is a shot in the arm of Indian cricket, and now they are on to New Zealand which has made its own history by beating Pakistan for a one -day series.