Thunder Down Under

"5.30 Am"

Thinking of when I was last awake at that time I cogitated to recollect two such instances.

One was during late December 2016 when I travelled all the way to SASTRA only for my cricket practice. There were no classes at all!!

Going  further back to another such instance  was during the 2014 Indian winter. It was again related to the game of cricket. India after their humiliating loss in English soil were down and out .The next overseas assignment was the Tour Down Under where we haven't had much success.

 The Indian squad was about to be announced and me along with my cricket friends were eagerly waiting for the squad.We were constantly having a debate on the team combinations.

The squad was pretty good with lots  of variety in it.We were satisfied. Indians played against CA XI  and the Oz probables were having a go in Sheffield. What followed next was horrendous.

Sean Abbot an unknown bowler then bowled a normal bouncer (It's so common in Australia) which claimed the life of a fluent batsman Philip Hughes!!

The Ozs' were still mourning his death but the first test had to get underway. Ozs' played with the black band throughout the series. On the other side India had their own worries. No DHONI for the first test.

Yeah! Kohli was made the stand in captain for the first test. What I got up to watch so early was a shocker. Captain Kohli sprung in a surprise by bringing in Karn Sharma for the first test.It backfired and India lost fighting down to the wire.

Everyone was waiting for Dhoni's return to the team but he was also welcomed with a loss. The two losses jolted the team badly.The series was on the line with India needing to win both the tests to regain the trophy. Eventually the third test ended in a draw and India lost the series.

But what affected the cricket fraternity was the unexpected retirement of Dhoni from the tests. The team played through those emotions with Kohli taking charge as the full time test captain . Another draw followed.

Done and dusted. Australia sealed the series 2-0.

What we thought was going to one heck of a series turned out be an one sided affair. Ozs' dedicated the series victory to Hughesy. Steve Smith arrived and conquered. But there were a lot of take aways for us too. Kohli after his disastrous English tour annihilated the opponents and became the full time test captain. Vj and Rahul dazzled whereas Jinks proved his prowess. The bowling was unsatisfactory.

Now fast forward to 2018-19 India are again touring Australia for a 4 match series. In these 4 years India as a team and Kohli as an individual have gone heights. They lost to the same nemesis in WC 2015, beat them in WT20, thrashed them in the home Border-Gavaskar trophy in 2017 after a little hiccup and many more.

Then they toured SA and England and put up the best ever performance by any touring party.

Australia had their own problems too with rare positives being the WC triumph and the most important ASHES victory at home. But Smith and Warner stood tall amidst all struggles until the Sandpaper Gate incident happened. Now Australia are without their best players. But Ozs' sans them are always strong on their home turf .

But what makes this series interesting is the hunger for the victory.Their never give up attitude provides us the best opportunity to conquer Australia.

Bolstered with quick guns and a capable batting unit I think this is going to be the year the "UNTHINKABLE" is going to happen. All rests on the team's performance in the field

Wait till this Thursday for the series to start

Remember the time guys


It's " 5.30Am"