Getting dismissed for their lowest Test score ever, losing paceman Mohammed Shami to injury, and missing Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma -- multiple woes besieged Team India when they touched down in Melbourne prior to the big-ticket Boxing Day Test.
With Australia having a boss-level winning percentage in Melbourne and the pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in raging form, all India had for motivation were the sweet memories of their victory at the MCG a couple of years ago, which also helped them register their first-ever Test series win Down Under.
Stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane had less than a week to rally a battered side and turn the tide. And the visitors did so in stunning fashion.
The only thing that went right for Australia was the toss, which Tim Paine won. After that, against all odds, India dominated the proceedings for the next three-and-a-half days and inflicted an eight-wicket loss on the hosts.
Rahane led the way with his 12th ton, while combination changes such as the inclusion of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja in the lower order proved to be a masterstroke. Also, debutants Mohammed Siraj and Shubman Gill showed the growing stature of India's domestic cricket as a talent hotbed.
While Australia is not out of the contest yet, with David Warner likely to make a comeback for the third Test at Sydney, India will be entering the last phase of their gruelling tour with some much-needed momentum.
Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the memorable Boxing Day Test victory:
Gill's successful debut solves India's 'opening' riddle to some extent
After Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal's far from satisfactory outings in the Adelaide day-nighter, sense finally prevailed in the Team India think-tank, which decided to hand Punjab youngster Shubman Gill his Test debut at the MCG. Just like Agarwal's maiden outing in the 2018 Boxing Day Test at the same venue, Gill's knocks of 45 and 35 gave the visitors' top-order the much-needed stability.
At the fag end of Day 1, despite Agarwal continuing his horror run, Gill didn't show any 'debutant nerves' as he decided to play the waiting game in the first two to three overs and then counter-attacked the Aussies with stylish boundaries straight down the wicket and through the offside.
Cutting and pulling Starc with ease and playing the senior partner's role in the 61-run second wicket partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara, the 21-year-old laid the base for India's decisive 131-run first innings lead.
In the second innings too, the Aussies had no answer to Gill's fluent strokeplay and towering confidence as his 36-ball knock of 35 and 51-run fourth wicket partnership with skipper Rahane helped India pull off the 70-run chase within 16 overs on a surface which saw 32 wickets tumbling in just three-and-a-half days.
Bumrah graduates as the leader of the pack
Despite Jasprit Bumrah wrecking batting line-ups in Test matches since December 2017, it was Ishant Sharma or Mohammed Shami who were considered the leaders of the pace battery in the last three years. While Ishant's injury during IPL 2020 came as a huge blow for the visitors, Shami's wrist fracture during the ill-fated Adelaide Test meant that Team India's biggest strength, their fast bowling arsenal, is now being stretched too thin.
While the visitors fielded a five-man bowling attack at the MCG, the concern was whether Bumrah would be able to cope with the absence of Shami and Ishant. He was partnering a talented yet inconsistent Umesh Yadav and debutant Mohammed Siraj.
However, it only brought out the best from him. Not only did his spell of 4-56 in 16 overs lead to the Aussies folding for a paltry 195 in the first innings, he also took the leadership role along with Ravichandran Ashwin and his inputs helped Siraj in particular as the debutant put up a solid display (2-40 in 15 overs) on Day 1 at the MCG.
In the second innings, despite Umesh Yadav's calf injury, India remained undeterred, as Bumrah again showed the way with a tight spell of 2-54 in his 27 overs. Apart from inflicting another disastrous outing on Smith, he started the lower order collapse by breaking the 57-run seventh wicket partnership between Cameron Green and Pat Cummins. Ashwin, Jadeja and Siraj backed him and ripped apart the home side's chances of putting up a competitive second innings total.
Apart from him becoming the joint highest wicket-taker for India in Boxing Day Tests along with Anil Kumble, it was a successful audition for 'Bumrah: The Leader of the Pack'.
Leader Rahane stamps his authority
Apart from dealing with the challenge of leading India in Kohli's absence, Rahane had quite a few other issues to fix, be it the poor running that led to the dismissal of VK at Adelaide or his lacklustre form in the last three years. He had only captained twice before -- the home series decider against the Aussies in 2017 and Afghanistan's maiden Test at Bengaluru in 2018. In both, he secured comfortable victories.
However, the Boxing Day encounter at the MCG saw a different Rahane altogether.
His brilliant bowling changes and unusual field placements (legside catching fielders against Labuschagne and Smith) on Day 1 at the MCG pushed Tim Paine and Co on the backfoot despite the latter winning the toss.
While Rahane didn't have the likes of Shami and Ishant at his disposal, he compensated by using Bumrah and Ashwin as primary attacking options, with Jadeja, Umesh and Siraj doing the supporting act.
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He played a masterstroke by bringing on Ashwin in the first hour of the match and the off-spinner gobbled up Steve Smith again. Australia slid to 38-3 by the 15th over and never recovered from that.
In the second innings, despite Umesh's injury, Rahane rallied the rest of his bowling resources intelligently to deny the opposition a healthy second innings lead.
His game-changing act came with the bat. On Day 2, it looked like the Aussies had their tails up when Cummins removed Pujara and Gill and left India at 64-3.
Rahane, coming at number four, decided to opt for safety first and, through a 52-run fourth wicket partnership with Hanuma Vihari, took his side through the difficult first few hours. After Vihari's dismissal, Rahane steadily shifted gears and the 57 and 121-run partnerships between him and Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja took the game out of Australia's reach.
Rahane's pristine, stroke-filled knock of 112 on an overcast, windy day in Melbourne reminded the fans of the 2014/15 season, when the Mumbai batsman scored hundreds at Wellington, Lord's and MCG to establish himself as Team India's new 'Mr. Dependable' in SENA countries (South Africa, New Zealand, England and Australia).
Apart from now being the series' highest run-getter (181 runs in four innings), Rahane's cool, calm demeanour (much like Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson), earned him accolades from the cricketing world.
Ashwin continues to shine, allrounder Jadeja offers safety cushion
Keeping in mind Ashwin's good show at Adelaide and the depleted fast bowling battery -- and equally scarred by the second innings batting failure -- Team India decided to go back to its tested two-spinner formula for the MCG showdown and picked Ravindra Jadeja.
While Ashwin's good form continued with another match-winning spell (106 runs in total 61.1 overs and five wickets), it was Jadeja who became the X-factor.
In the first innings, apart from his spell of 1-15 in 5.3 overs, the Saurashtra all-rounder scored a vital knock of 57 at number seven.
While some may point out that the innings lacked the allrounder's typical flair as he took 159 balls and hit only three boundaries, it was very important in the context of the match.
When he arrived at the crease, the score was 173-5, with India still trailing by 22 runs and Australia relishing the prospect of bowling at the tail.
The 121-run partnership between Jadeja and skipper Rahane ultimately became the turning point of the match.
In the second innings, he dismissed set opener Mathew Wade for 40 and opened the floodgates for India as the home side slid from 98-3 to 99-6 before managing to touch the 200-run mark.
Mohammed Siraj a worthy addition to Team India's pace arsenal
The Hyderabad pacer, who grabbed the spotlight in the 2016/17 Ranji season (41 wickets in nine matches) and then in the domestic white-ball outings next year (33 scalps in 12 matches in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and Syed Mushtaq T20 Championship), broke into India's red-ball set-up after a brilliant IPL a couple of months back (11 wickets in nine games).
What impressed the selectors most was the youngster's ability to consistently generate pace and bounce, along with sharp movement, on UAE pitches while hitting the Test match line and length.
Ishant's absence and Shami's injury meant that the team management had no option but to blood the 26-year-old in the Boxing Day clash at Melbourne, going by his strong show in both the warm-up matches prior to the series.
The 'Hyderabad Express', like Gill, didn't show any nerves. He kept on attacking the off-stump line, with the Aussies finding it hard to figure out which ones were swinging in and which were going out. The best example was Cameron Green's LBW dismissal on Day 1. The Aussie allrounder failed to pick the fourth delivery of the 61st over, which was a full-length inswinger.
In the second innings, he stepped up after Umesh's injury and played the second seamer's role to perfection with a spell of 3-37 in 21.3 overs including two big wickets of Travis Head and Green again. This time, Green missed his maiden fifty by five runs as he unsuccessfully tried to pull Siraj.