Indian skipper Rohit Sharma compared their seven-wicket win at Newlands in Cape Town to their historic three-wicket win against Australia at the Gabba in 2021. The Men in Blue won its first Test in Cape Town after 31 years, as their previous best was only a draw against Proteas in the Newlands stadium.
The 2021 Border Gavaskar Trophy was one of the toughest Test series the Indian team had ever faced on overseas soil with a string of injuries and the unavailability of key players. After being knocked out for 36 runs in Adelaide, winning the series 2-1 with a second-string side was one for the ages. Under Ajinkya Rahane, Team India made history by winning the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne by eight wickets.
Speaking to the media after the historic victory, Rohit Sharma called the victory against South Africa in Cape Town one of the greatest victories in Indian cricket history and compared it to the historic Gabba Test victory over Australia during the 2020-21 tour.
“It’ll be one of our best Test match victories, Having not won here in Cape Town [before], obviously this puts it right up there with all the victories that we’ve had. It’s very hard to compare the Test matches that you play because every Test match has its own importance and own relevance”.
“The Test match that we won at The Gabba as well. The last test match that was lost by Australia in Brisbane was in 1988, I think. Nearly after 23, 24 years [32 years] we won the Test match there. It kind of became like their fortress. They never lose a test match there,” Rohit Sharma said.
“And the way we won that Test match as well was quite important. From where we came, we were 1-nil down, we won in Melbourne and then we drew the Test match in Sydney and then won in Brisbane. So you can’t really rank the Test matches, but this has to be right up there because we had not won here.
“That shows how important a venue this is for us to come here and perform. I give a lot of credit to our team to put up a performance like that and win the game,” Rohit Sharma added.
The Indian team was without the services of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Mohammed Shami for the second test. It was a completely second-string team with a completely different bowling attack but dominated the mighty Australian side on their home turf.
The Australians had never lost a Test match at Brisbane in the previous 32 years, and it appeared like they would easily defeat India and win the series against the Indian side. However, the Indian team defied expectations by winning by three wickets in Brisbane, with the youngster putting up a fine show to win the game.
