In this special episode of the 81allout podcast, we chat with journalist and author Bharat Sundaresan on his experiences of covering India's recent tour to Australia.

Bharat is a cricket reporter at cricbuzz.com and is the author of The Dhoni Touch: Unravelling the Enigma that is MS Dhoni

Talking points:

• Covering a Test series in COVID times
• Driving from one Australian state to the other, avoiding borders
• The uncertainty over the venues and itinerary
• Wearing masks in the press box
• A distracted press box as India collapsed for 36 in Adelaide
• The spate of injuries during the tour
• A relatively muted Boxing Day
• Ashwin's spell in Melbourne
• Ajinkya Rahane's captaincy
• Mohammad Siraj improving with every spell in Melbourne
• Siraj reporting poor crowd behavior
• Australia constantly threatening to break away... until India kept fighting back
• The net session when Pant talked to his bruised arm
• The Ravi Shastri effect on the youngster in the team
• Ashwin's innings in the battling draw in Sydney
• Vihari - the quiet achiever
• Covering the Brisbane Test from a radio studio in Sydney
• Australians convincing themselves of the Brisbane myth
• All the talk of the weather in Brisbane
• India putting themselves in a position to dictate terms on the final day
• The emotional charge to victory

Participants:

Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@Sidvee)

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Related:

The unlikely script of the Gabba heist - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com

Bruised but unbowed: India's mighty display of guts and gumption - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com

The summer of Siraj - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com

Washington Sundar: destiny's child - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com

Rahane's personality-defining day out - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com

Ashwin: The conscientious spin scientist - Bharat Sundaresan - cricbuzz.com

List of Bharat Sundaresan's cricbuzz columns