Ajinkya Rahane led from the front to take India to a historic 2-1 win in the just-concluded four-game Test series in Australia. The win is historic owing to a number of factors. India were shot out for only 36 in the second innings of the day-night Test in Adelaide and the humiliating defeat by 8 wickets earned them brickbats all over. Regular captain and the team’s best batsman Virat Kohli left after the first game and that made the experts write off India to forecast a 4-0 defeat.

Then there were the injuries and the visitors ended up playing as many as 20 players in the series with five making their debut. And last but not the least, Indian players faced hostile situations both on and off the ground — in terms of racial abuse from the stands and criticism over protesting strict quarantine rules.

Yet, Rahane and his boys made the most out of the three Tests after the Adelaide humiliation. A fantastic three-wicket at the Gabba which looked unlikely even after the game’s halfway stage made the victory even sweeter. This win meant India bagged two consecutive Test series against Australia Down Under — the first-ever Asian side to accomplish the feat.

But apart from winning their second successive Test series in Australia, India also added to their list of significant milestones against the Australians in Test matches with their memorable victory at the Gabba.

India end Australia’s 32-year Test unbeaten streak at Gabba:

It was their win at the Gabba that stopped the Australians’ long unbeaten streak on that ground. Australia have won 40 out of 63 games they have played on this premier venue and lost only nine. The last of those losses before the one against India came way back in 1988 when the West Indies thrashed them by 9 wickets. In between the defeats against the Caribbeans and Indians, Australia played 31 Tests at the Gabba and won 24 of them while only seven were drawn.

India, on the other hand, registered their first-ever Test win at the Gabba and it came in their seventh attempt (five losses, one draw). No other Asian nation has managed to achieve a Test win at the same venue with Pakistan losing five out of six and Sri Lanka two out of three.

India are first and only Asian team to win at WACA:

India have in the past also stopped Australia’s winning streak at another famed venue on their soil and it is at the WACA, Perth. Known to be one of the fastest wickets on the planet, the former international venue was another of Australia’s fortresses that visiting teams found difficult to penetrate. The Kangaroos played 44 matches at the WACA between 1970 and 2017 (when the last match was played) and won 25 of them (lost 11 while eight were drawn).

The West Indies and South Africa are the only other teams to have won more Tests at the WACA than lost (WI have five wins out of seven while two defeats and SA have won three out of four with one draw). Australia remained unbeaten in Tests at the WACA for 11 years after their 1997 loss to the West Indies when Courtney Walsh’s side hammered them by 10 wickets. They won eight out of 10 matches and drew two before taking on Anil Kumble’s India in January 2008.

Trailing 0-2, the Indians came back strongly in the third match in Perth to win by 72 runs to keep the series alive. India thus became the first Asian side and the only one to beat Australia at the WACA. Only five sides have managed to humble the Aussies at this ground and they include, besides the West Indies, India and South Africa, England and New Zealand. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have lost all their matches played here (five for Pakistan and two for the Lankans).

Ending Australia’s winning streaks in Tests:

The 72-run win in Perth was also special for this win meant India ended Australia’s winning streak of 16 Tests — for the second time. The run had started with a 184-run win over South Africa in Melbourne in December 2005 and continued till the controversial second Test against India in Sydney which they won by 122 runs.

This feat matched India’s another heroic effort at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata, in 2001 that halted the mighty Australians’ march in Tests with 16 consecutive wins. That streak had started with a 10-wicket win over Zimbabwe in Harare in 1999 and continued till the 10-wicket victory over India in Mumbai in early 2001 before the tables were turned on them by an epic partnership between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid that helped India win the Kolkata clash despite facing a follow-on.

Ending Australia’s 19-ODI winning streak at home in 2016:

In 2016, India went to Australia for two limited-over series comprising five ODIs and three T20Is. Under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy, India had a terrible start to the ODIs despite scoring big totals consistently. The first four games went to Australia, and with that, the series and those wins meant Australia extended their winning streak in the 50-over format at home to 19 matches.

They were just two games short of matching their own record of winning 21 ODI matches on the trot between January and May 2003 (it was matched last year by Australia Eves). But a sensational unbeaten century from Manish Pandey in the fifth and final ODI in Sydney not only helped India to avoid a brown wash but also halted yet another Australian juggernaut.

India then avenged the 1-4 loss in the ODIs with a 3-0 whitewash in the T20Is.