Reshaped India fight back from brink to shake up series with Australia | Geoff Lemon

The tourists should have been on the way to 4-0 down, but at the MCG they produced one of the most marked inversions

Turnarounds do not come much more drastic than this. As Ajinkya Rahane led India to a series-levelling win against Australia in Melbourne, making it 1-1 with two Tests to play, the factors counting against it needed counting on at least the fingers of both hands.

It was not just the usual difficulty for any team of winning Test matches away from home. Start with the fact that it was 10 days since India had been bowled out for 36 in Adelaide, an entire Test innings done with inside 23 overs. Through long-past tours when far weaker Indian teams were completely outmatched in alien conditions, even against combinations like Lillee and Thomson or McGrath and Warne, none had suffered such an indignity.

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