Following India's eight-wicket victory over Australia at Dharamshala on Tuesday, our man in India Dileep Premachandran looks at the five best players in the four-match Test series, which the home team won 2-1.
Ravindra Jadeja
His 127 runs included two vital half-centuries. The one in Dharamshala, made with Steve Smith calling him “useless” from slip, was especially important, lifting India from 221 for six to 332, a lead of 32. With the ball, he eclipsed Ravichandran Ashwin to take 25 wickets at 18.56. His economy rate of 2.17 was by far the best on either side. His brilliance in the field was best illustrated by the run out of Josh Hazlewood in Ranchi.
Steve Smith
No Australia batsman had ever scored three hundreds in a series in India. Smith topped the run charts with 499, and he showed his mastery on three very different surfaces. On a minefield in Pune, he rode his luck. In Ranchi, on a slow and low pitch, he was patient and clinical. In Dharamshala, he was just imperious, dispatching even the good balls with ease. The second-innings failures in Bangalore and Dharamshala will rankle though.
Cheteshwar Pujara
He was India’s top scorer with 405 runs at 57.85. The home team’s failure to win in Ranchi took some of the sheen off his 672-minute, 525-ball vigil for 202. It should not, as it was his partnership with Wriddhiman Saha that allowed India to push for victory in the first place. Even more important was his 92 in Bangalore, a tenacious five-hour effort that wrested control of the series from a rampant Australia.
Umesh Yadav
Finally he got the rewards his lion-hearted bowling earlier in the season had deserved. Strongly built and considerably more accurate than in seasons past, Umesh never lost intensity. His pace was consistently around the 140 km/hr mark and he swung the old ball to lethal effect, taking 17 wickets at 23.41. No other pace bowler even got to double figures. His dismissal of David Warner triggered Australia’s Dharamshala slide.
Lokesh Rahul
Forget the lack of three-figure scores. This was the series in which Lokesh Rahul came of age as an international batsman. In testing conditions, he made six fifties, and he failed just once. The fast bowlers troubled him occasionally, and an injured shoulder restricted the big hits against the spinners, but he showed both composure and a pleasing array of strokes that augur well for Indian cricket’s future.
__________________________________
From Dileep Premachandran
■ Kuldeep Yadav – 'Dream come true' meeting with Shane Warne
■ Cheteshwar Pujara – One-format batsman proving his worth
__________________________________
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @NatSportUAE
Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/TheNationalSport
