Brisbane 2021: How a Depleted India Chased 328 and Ended Australia’s Gabba Run

On 19 January 2021, at the Gabba in Brisbane, India reached 329 for seven to beat Australia by three wickets and take the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series 2-1. It was Australia's first Test defeat at the ground since West Indies beat them there in November 1988, and the 328 India chased was the highest successful fourth-innings target at the Gabba. The result is usually told as a story of nerve. It is just as much a story of selection under pressure: the team that won it was put together from whoever was still fit.

The road to Brisbane

The four-Test series began badly for India. In the first Test at Adelaide in December 2020, they were bowled out for 36 in their second innings, their lowest total in Test cricket, with Josh Hazlewood taking five for 8. Australia won by eight wickets. Virat Kohli, who captained that match, then went home on paternity leave for the birth of his first child, and Ajinkya Rahane led the side for the remaining three Tests.

Rahane's first match in charge, at Melbourne, turned the series. He made 112, his 12th Test hundred, and India won to level the series at 1-1. At Sydney in January 2021, India were set 407 to win and batted out the final day to finish on 334 for five. Rishabh Pant made 97 and Cheteshwar Pujara 77 from 205 balls, before Hanuma Vihari, hampered by a hamstring injury, and Ravichandran Ashwin closed the match out. Vihari faced 161 balls for 23 not out and Ashwin 128 balls for 39 not out.

A team assembled from the injury list

That draw came at a cost. By the time of the fourth Test, which began on 15 January, India were without Jasprit Bumrah (abdominal strain), Ashwin, Vihari (hamstring) and Ravindra Jadeja (dislocated thumb), on top of Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav, who had been ruled out earlier in the tour. Two players made their Test debuts: the left-arm seamer T Natarajan and the off-spinning all-rounder Washington Sundar. Shardul Thakur, whose only previous Test had lasted just ten deliveries for him, was recalled, and Navdeep Saini left the field with a groin problem on the first day.

In practice this meant Mohammed Siraj, who had made his Test debut at Melbourne less than three weeks earlier, was leading the attack. Australia won the toss, batted, and made 369, with Marnus Labuschagne scoring a century.

The first rescue: Thakur and Sundar

India’s reply looked to be going the way of Adelaide. Shortly after lunch on the third day they were 186 for six, still 183 behind, with Pant and Rahane both out. Thakur and Sundar, in only their second and first Tests respectively, then added 123 for the seventh wicket, the highest seventh-wicket stand by an Indian pair in Tests at the Gabba. Both made their maiden Test fifties; Thakur was bowled by Pat Cummins for 67. India were all out for 336, with Hazlewood taking five for 57.

The importance of that stand is easy to understate. Without it, India would probably have conceded a first-innings lead of well over 100 and been batting to save the match. Instead the deficit was 33. That is a reading of the scorecard rather than a recorded fact, but it is the hinge on which the rest of the match turned.

Siraj and the setting of 328

Australia’s second innings brought a career-best performance from Siraj, who took five for 73, his first five-wicket haul in Tests. Steve Smith top-scored with 55. Rain interrupted the fourth day and forced an early tea, and Australia were bowled out for 294, leaving India 328 to win. They closed the fourth day at 4 for no wicket.

The equation was lopsided. With the series level at 1-1 and India holding the trophy, a draw was enough for them to keep it; Australia needed to win. India therefore had a choice on the final day: bat for time, or go for the runs and accept the risk.

The final day: patience first, then Pant

The chase was built in two distinct phases. The first was about survival. Rohit Sharma fell early, and then Shubman Gill and Pujara added 114 for the second wicket. Gill made 91 before Nathan Lyon had him caught at slip by Smith. Pujara played the opposite role: 56 from 211 balls across more than five hours, during which he was struck repeatedly on the body, hands and helmet by the Australian fast bowlers.

The second phase was about acceleration. Rahane came in and made 24 from 22 balls before falling to Cummins, and India reached tea at 183 for three, needing 145 more. Pujara and Mayank Agarwal were both out in the final session, but Pant kept scoring. Sundar added 22, and Pant finished unbeaten on 89 from 138 balls as India got home with three overs to spare. He was named player of the match. Cummins, with four for 55, was the pick of Australia’s bowlers in the chase.

Why it worked

Looking back, three things stand out. They are judgements drawn from the record, not established facts.

• Time before runs. Pujara’s long innings absorbed the new ball and the main spells of Australia’s fast bowlers. By the time Pant was batting freely, India still had wickets in hand and the bowlers had already worked hard.
• Batting depth from bowlers. The two all-rounders picked partly out of necessity, Thakur and Sundar, put on 123 together in the first innings, and Sundar added useful runs in the second. A side picked purely for bowling would not have had that cushion.
• Keeping the win in play. India did not need to win and could have batted for the draw. Rahane’s brisk innings and Pant’s freedom to attack suggest the team chose to keep victory possible for as long as the wickets allowed.

What the series left behind

India won the series 2-1 and kept the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, having been 36 all out in the opening match. The final Test is remembered chiefly for Pant’s finish, but the scorecard tells a fuller story: a first-innings rescue by two lower-order players, a five-wicket haul from a bowler in only his third Test, and a fifth-day chase that spent its first half deliberately going slowly. Australia did not lose another Test at the Gabba until January 2024, against West Indies.