The fourth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy played in Ahmedabad ended in a draw after it was mutually agreed by the players and umpires to call for early stumps on the final day. Australia at that moment were batting at 175/2 with stand-in skipper Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne present in the middle and a draw looked inevitable on the dead track. With the outcome, India also secured the prestigious Border-Gavaskar Trophy, winning the four-match series 2-1.
India kicked-off the series with big wins in Nagpur and Delhi, before Smith-led Australia to a superb 9-wicket victory in Indore, thus putting some life into the contest, which until then appeared as one-way traffic.
Shortly after the post-match presentation party, legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar shared with fans about how excited Rohit Sharma was when he handed the trophy to him. He then went to lavish praise on the Indian skipper, who he believed “set the tone” behind India's emphatic show in the series.
“Very, very happy. He kept on saying ‘Thank you, thank you!’. Look it means a lot for any captain to win a Test match and then the series and he has been absolutely outstanding. It was his innings of 120 in the first Test and it wasn't easy to bat on, wasn't impossible to bat but it wasn't easy. He got a brilliant 100 that set the tone, which meant later on when Axar Patel came, Ravindra Jadeja came and they had the partnership to take India to 400. So basically the platform was laid by the captain.
{{/usCountry}}“Very, very happy. He kept on saying ‘Thank you, thank you!’. Look it means a lot for any captain to win a Test match and then the series and he has been absolutely outstanding. It was his innings of 120 in the first Test and it wasn't easy to bat on, wasn't impossible to bat but it wasn't easy. He got a brilliant 100 that set the tone, which meant later on when Axar Patel came, Ravindra Jadeja came and they had the partnership to take India to 400. So basically the platform was laid by the captain.
{{/usCountry}}“So he had a big role to play, also later other matches the way he's captained, the way he's been able to get the bowlers bowled. Here it wasn't easy for the bowlers, they were struggling but you can see the way he kept the morale up, kept them going. It can't be very demanding even for a spinner to keep on bowling 15, 20, 30 overs but his captaincy has been very outstanding. Very pleased for him absolutely proud that India have won yet another series against Australia and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy stays here,” noted Gavaskar while speaking on Star Sports, the official broadcaster of the series.
If we look at Rohit's performance with the bat, he was the only Indian until the final Test to notch a ton. Rohit had achieved the same in the series opener in Nagpur, where he hit 120 off 212 balls. In fact, Rohit managed 242 runs from six innings in the series, which was heavily dominated by the spinners.
Only Virat Kohli, who scored a brilliant 186 in the final Test, and Axar Patel, who was instrumental with the bat throughout the series, scored more runs than the Indian skipper.