With the plethora of Test series these days, and bearing in mind India's recent spell as world number ones, it is perhaps surprising that this is the first time they have ever won a rubber 4-0. To do so against Australia must be particularly pleasing to Dhoni and co coming barely a year after the same opposition achieved the same result against them Down Under.
In 2012, it was Michael Clarke - supported by the now-retired Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey - who simply dominated the Indian bowling attack. In the last month, spin has mostly been king on the Asian pitches, and the new-look Aussie battig line-up has come up distinctly second-best. Nathan Lyon has had his moments but it has been Ravi Ashwin's turn to shine, taking 29 wickets to claim the Man of the Series award. Ravi Jadeja picked up 24 in all, and was notably successful in nullifying the threat of Clarke in the first three Tests. His 5-57 this weekend helped set up the run chase which Pujara led convincingly to secure the fourth win out of four.
It wasn't just with the ball that India dominated. Murali Vijay top-scored with 430 runs, Cheteshwar Pujara and even MS Dhoni notched double-centuries and Shikhar Dhawan stepped into the side and thrashed one of the highest innings by a debutant in Test cricket history. Should Sachin Tendulkar take this opportunity to retire with dignity and after a thrashing of the Aussies, he will leave the Indian top order looking more solid than it did last year. Rahane failed on his debut but has the ability to merit another chancPerhaps we need to see how they fare overseas before delivering a final verdict. We know Ashwin, Ojha and Jadeja can do the business on spin-friendly tracks but they were thumped in Australia last year and will always struggle in England and South Africa. Kumar and Sharma are hardly world-class seamers although Ishant was pumped up - too much! - on what proved to be the final day of this series.
As for the Aussies, they will surely bounce back. 'Homework-gate' should be forgotten. That only became an issue because heads were down following a battering. Few players like to analyse their own performance in defeat but in private surely everyone needs to diagnose their own weaknesses in order to improve their game. Australia certainly miss Ponting and Hussey and their tail looked embarrassingly long in the Fourth Test when Steve Smith replaced then injured skipper and Shane Watson was recalled to number four. Peter Siddle, though, outscored them all, becoming the first number nine ever to score fifties in both innings of a Test. Maybe he needs to swap places with Phil Hughes?!
Congratulations to India on their wonderful series victory, their biggest since crushing England twenty years ago. They must hope to take this new-found confidence and turn it into another assault on South Africa's current dominance of Test cricket.
