Tenacious Australia offer hope for World Test Championship

I n 2017, Australia’s Test team came home from India after four Tests with a 2-1 defeat. In 2023, the scoreline was the same. In the first series, the tourists made the better of a turning pitch to win a shootout, fumbled a game they had in their keeping, batted the last day to see out a draw and had a loss by a substantial margin. This time around they started with a big loss, had their fumble in the second match, won the shootout in the third, and batting out the draw to finish it off.

The results don’t merit rejoicing, but with India having lost three matches and won 36 in more than a decade, the fact that Australia’s tours have produced two of these wins is worth some satisfaction. The sequence of results meant that 2017 was a story of taking a lead and being reeled back in, while 2023 surrendered the chance of a series win in five days, but fought back from that low with unlikely tenacity. It’s a matter of opinion which scenario would leave losing players feeling better about the situation.

Critically, both series featured one that got away. In Bengaluru, in 2017, Australia needed 188 on a tricky pitch, but were spun out by Ravichandran Ashwin in a collapse of six for 11. Instead of taking in insurmountable lead they let the series be squared. This time around it was Delhi, even after letting India’s lower-order prosper in their first innings, when Australia led by 86 on a bunsen burner. A crash of eight for 28 gave India a chaseable target. Changing the second Test’s result might have changed those that followed, but letting that one slip matters most to the players.

“We had that Delhi game,” said Marnus Labuschagne with exasperation, standing at the boundary after securing the final draw. “We were the better