'After those two series losses, we realised our potential' - Ravi Shastri recalls how India conquered Australia

In a conversation, former India coach Ravi Shastri recalled a comment he made in 2018. He called India the best 'traveling team.' India had lost to England right before and they lost to South Africa earlier in the same year. But, they turned the tide with their win in Australia in 2018-19.

Shastri said after the series loss that he and then-skipper Virat Kohli focused a lot on fitness. And having a good fast bowling attack helped them achieve what nobody was able to do before - win a series in Australia.

In a conversation with Shoaib Akhtar on his YouTube channel, Shastri said, “I think the endeavor was to make this the best traveling team in the world. I said that back in 2017. People started laughing. But indirectly it was a challenge to the boys saying that you can do it, you know, once we had our pace-bowling attack in place. But we got hit by the bullets. We lost a close series in South Africa 2-1. We lost in England as well, 4-1, which could have been 3-2 in our favor with a little bit of luck.

"But after losing those two series I knew that we are on the way. Now, something big will happen. We were strong and fit. Gave a lot of attention to fitness, me and Virat both and it did wonders. And then we turned the corner in Australia. Australia is probably the toughest place in the world to play. They are born to play hard cricket. I knew if we can compete here, and put it across to them, it will be the ultimate.”

India's major overseas wins since 2018

After the two series losses in 2018, India played in Australia and won the series by 2-1. This was the first time in history that India beat Australia in a Test series in Australia. They beat Australia again in the 2020-21 series after they failed in the first match in Adelaide. They then went and took a lead of 2-1 in England, with the final match yet to be played.