Cricketers, B-Town, Twitterati praise Virat Kohli & Co for historic win

Sunil Gavaskar

Team India's historic win against the mighty Australians was showered with gushing praise by former players with batting great Sunil Gavaskar slamming critics that the triumph came against a weakened team.

India won the four-match series 2-1 after the Sydney Test ended in a rain-forced draw, their first ever Test series triumph on Australian soil. What the weather could not hide was Australia's poor performance with both bat and ball through the four-match series.

It was attributed to batting mainstays David Warner and Steve Smith's one-year ban on ball tampering charges but Gavaskar rejected the assertion. "It is not India's fault that this Australian team was without David Warner and Steve Smith. Australia could have handed them shorter bans but obviously it was thought that one-year bans would be good for Australian cricket, that they needed to be made an example for anyone who brings the game into disrepute," Gavaskar said during a post-match show on a private TV channel.

"India played the opposition they were presented with and it's a great achievement for them," the former captain. According to Gavaskar what separates Kohli's men from earlier teams are their world-class fitness standards.

"It is not that teams that I was a part of didn't play to win. We also played to win but this team is at a different level in terms of fitness and the captain has shown the way. In our times, we used to do our individual routines," recalled Gavaskar. Meanwhile, former and current players along with administrators hailed the series win on various platforms.

Here's how the cricket fraternity congratulated Team India on their thumping win down under:

Besides the cricketing fraternity even the B-Town industry lauded the Indian cricket team for creating history by winning a Test series on Australian soil for the first time. Here are some tweets from Bollywood celebrities congratulating Team India:

World's number one Test team India defended the Border Gavaskar Trophy after clinching the four-Test series 2-1. The hosts Australia were bundled out for 300 on the fourth day of the fourth and final Test, which also forced them to follow-on at home for the first time in 30 years. The fourth Test at Sydney was abandoned due to rain.

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Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from PTI