Gift of the Gabba

After the choking nightmare at Melbourne, Team India today pulled off a great victory at the Gabba. First, they posted a 300-plus total, with the help of a very very special knock from Laxman. Then, two young speedsters—L Balaji and Irfan Pathan—made India forget the absence of pace spearheads Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar and ended a 12-year drought of wins against Australia in Australia.

The story of Balaji, 22, and Pathan, 19, is one of two young men, who thought they had been always fighting for the same slot in the Indian team, but never let it come in the way of their friendship. It is also an amazing story of two people, who may be the last two names the selectors ticked for the tour to Australia, turning a crucial match around for India. Today, the two fellow strugglers, whose bonding developed during their two India A tours abroad and national camps, accounted for seven Aussie batsmen between them.

At a pre-season camp in Bangalore last year, Balaji had told The Indian Express that the competition didn’t stop them from being the best of friends. Pathan had disclosed how he would run up to his fellow pacer when his ‘‘head dropped after a bad delivery.’’

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Balaji made it to the squad after the first-choice pacer Aavishkar Salvi dropped out due injury while Pathan was picked as a back-up to the recovering left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra.

This was followed by the doubts over their selection. Critics wrote about Balaji’s forgettable debut against West Indies at home while Pathan’s 9-wicket haul against Bangladesh at the under-19 Asia Cup was dismissed as a ‘freak’ spell against the minnows.

But like so often on this tour, critics have been proved wrong and skipper Saurav Ganguly has an ‘I-told-you’ look on his face. The Aussies collapse started with ‘c Balaji b Pathan’ and ended with ‘c Pathan b Balaji’.