India’s 2-1 win in Australia is not the best triumph overseas, feels Sanjay Manjrekar

India started 2019 with a bang winning their first-ever Test series in Australia. The team led by Virat Kohli defeated Tim Paine’s Aussies 2-1 in a four-game series after the fourth Test in Sydney, which India were favourites to win, ended in a draw. India’s head coach Ravi Shastri was so overwhelmed that he even called the win perhaps bigger than India’s first World Cup win in 1983 and the World Championship of Cricket Down Under in 1985. However, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar begged to differ.

India’s 2-1 victory Down Under did not reflect the dominance that India showed in the series but Manjrekar feels there were bigger victories the Asian powerhouse had on foreign soil in the past. According to the 53-year-old former cricketer who now does commentary and analysis on the game, the latest win is India’s fourth-best win in Tests overseas.

India have beaten eight Test-playing nations on their soil starting from the 3-1 win over New Zealand in 1967-68 and the only big team they are yet to beat in an away series is South Africa. Read – Here is a list of India’s maiden away Test series wins

“We have to understand that this Australian batting lineup is the weakest. And before the series began, India had a good chance of winning. But because India weren’t winning in South Africa and England despite having a good team there was that question mark.

So, No.4. Although the quality of the Indian bowling attack was good. But India had a weakness too – going into the series their batting had a problem. And the series would have been a lot closer had Pujara, after India were 40 for 4 on Day 1 (at Adelaide) not got that hundred,” the former cricketer said in a conversation with ESPNCricinfo.

Latest win in Australia is the fourth-best for Manjrekar

For Manjrekar, the 1-0 win in the three-match series against England in 1971 under the late Ajit Wadekar was India’s best overseas series win in Tests. He rated India’s 1-0 in a five-Test series in the Windies earlier that year under the same captain as the second-best overseas Test series win. Manjrekar’s third pick was India’s 2-0 win in England in a three-Test series under Kapil Dev.

Thereafter it was the latest series win in Australia while his fifth preference was the 2-1 victory in three Tests in Pakistan in 2004 under the joint captaincies of Rahul Dravid (2 Tests) and Sourav Ganguly (1 Test).

On the reason for ranking the Wadekar-led win in England in 1971 as the top one, Manjrekar said after the first two Tests were drawn, India’s Bhagwat Chandrasekhar produced a magic spell to help the team win by setting a target of 170-odd. “And finally at Oval, that magic spell from Chandrashekar. They had to get about 170 runs. The pressure must have been immense. A David-Goliath situation and so it has to be No.1,” he said.

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