On This Day in 2021 – Defiance finds its new faces in Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin

We have seen cricket go through various incarnations, epochs, tribulations and what not and yet, somehow, it has survived. At times, barely by the skin of its teeth and at times flourishing beyond imaginations. At the moment though, it certainly is the latter. However, no matter the shenanigans of time and space, if one format has been through the thick and the thin, through fire and ice and yet is worshipped as the ultimate challenge, that is Test cricket.

From Sir Donald Bradman to Sachin Tendulkar, from Richard Hadlee to Shane Warne, from Virat Kohli to Steve Smith and from Jimmy Anderson to Mitchell Starc, every legend that you talk about had to go through the pangs of donning the white threads and brave almost insurmountable odds to kiss the pantheon of cricketing Gods that they now sit in.

But then with that being said, not always do you find heroes wrapped in silk and bathed in milk. A few come for a game or two and battle with their lives on the line. Test cricket has been riddled with countless instances of such rugged battles. They may not have been gorgeous double-hundreds or glistening tenners but cameos that featured numbers which people won’t even recall but that grit is what will inspire generations of talent.

On this very day in 2021, one such battle unfurled ahead of all of us. A battle that saw two of the unlikeliest names batting for 50 overs straight with injuries that would rule them out of the series and keep them away from cricket for quite a while, after they saved the match and also the series for India.

After getting skittled out for 36 in the opening Test, when questions deluged the horizon, Team India staged a strong turnaround in the second Test, levelling the series. However, with Virat Kohli back in the country, things looked really tricky but the Men in Blue were in Australia with a resolve of steel and they were not willing to back down.

As they chased 407 in the fourth innings of the contest, things started looking really bleak when Pujara fell for 77, leaving India tottering in trouble at 272/5. Pujara’s last stand was with Hanuma Vihari, who had already pulled his hamstring while running between the wickets earlier in the innings and getting those singles and doubles were already ruled out of the equation.

However, Vihari had no intention of stopping. Following Pant’s dismissal, Ashwin walked out to bat and the day had more than 50 overs remaining and all that Australia needed was five wickets to clinch the fate of the series. Adding another twist to the tale, Ashwin wasn’t fit either. He had to be injected with pain-killers ahead of coming out to bat.

When the two started batting, the Aussie pace battery did exactly what the world feared them for. From the menacing array of sweet chin music being forged on the bumpers that flew one after the other to a flurry of agonizing toe-crushers, Ashwin and Vihari were peppered with bullets at both ends.

Both the Indian batters copped quite a few on their wrists, forearms, backs, and a couple of deliveries onto their helmets too. However, the resolve remained and so did the belief. No matter what came their way, who was delivering the payload, the only thing that Ashwin and Vihari knew for that particular day was that they would defend until the end.

Team India, eventually after 43 overs of relentless resilience, inexplicable tolerance and most importantly a belief that never really looked like one for the mortals had managed to draw the contest and keep the series alive for the finale at Gabba where history was penned. Vihari stayed unbeaten for 23 from 161 balls while Ashwin stayed unscarred for 39 from 128 balls.