It was a difficult night to sleep. As I finished some late night work, my eyes kept going back to the clock and the mind to Brisbane. A few hours from then, the Indian openers will be walking in to bat in what could very well be a historic win.
Win? In Gabba? Against this Australian attack? on a fifth-day pitch which is breaking? You are joking. ain't you? My fearful mind was chiding the heart. The heart, the hopeful heart, knew it all very all. It has been broken many times. Don't dare to hope, I told my heart as I went to bed. I set the clock for 6.00. Did not want another heartbreak by getting up earlier than that.
Ah, we only have had heartbreaks in Australia.
I was yet to enter my teens when an Indian cricket tour to Australia hit me. 1999! A man called Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was all I dreamt off then. Sadly, SRT was the only man standing between Australia and a win. One man cannot win test cricket matches! Lesser men around him fell like nine pins. India was a walkover.
The 2000s saw good Indian teams fight tooth and nail to win a test here and there. But winning a series? Winning a chase in Gabba? They still were dreams. petty hopes of the romantic heart!
Then Virat Kohli and 2018 happened. We won! We finally won a series. Yet, it was not fulfilling. The Aussies then complained that they were not a full team. It almost felt like beating a dead snake. Also, we never won in Gabba. Gabba, the mighty gabba still remained the fortress!
I woke up trepidatiously at 6.00. Do I look at the score? Can I bear one more heartbreak? What if the score read 50 - 4? What if it read 70 - 0, said the hopeful heart. Hope, is a beautiful thing! I dared myself to switch on. A young man without fear was taking on the Aussies. The man knew no fear. Then another walked in. The same age. The same generation. He knew no fear either. Then another, and another. A generation which was not scarred by failure. A generation which knew no fear. They were carefree spirits, yet they cared! They cared enough to pull India through to the greatest cricketing victory Indian test history has seen.
Experience scars you! My generation needed this gabba. Each one of us was scarred by our own insecurities, fears, shortcomings, failures, bugbears, broken bodies, bruises and misfortunes We needed to see that they could be confronted. And conquered. For hope conquers fear. And fearlessness leads to victory.
The fortress is breached. Fear is conquered. Hope prevails.
Test cricket marches on!
