NEW DELHI: The Indian cricket team’s historic Test series triumph in Australia last month was recounted in the budget speech of Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who said it epitomises the country’s “unsuppressed thirst to succeed”.
The Indian team, ravaged by injuries to most of its key players and without regular skipper Virat Kohli who was on paternity leave, upstaged a full-strength Australia 2-1 in a four-match Test series last month.
“I can’t help but recall the joy that we as a cricket-loving nation felt after the team India‘s recent spectacular success in Australia,” Sitharaman said on Monday during her speech.
“It has reminded us of all the qualities that we as people, particularly our youth, epitomise having abundant promise and the unsuppressed thirst to perform and to succeed,” she added.
This came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the lion-hearted effort of the side in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address to the nation.
“This month there was some great news from the cricket field. Our cricket team, after crossing initial hurdles, made a brilliant comeback to win the series in Australia. The hard work and team work of our players is inspirational,” he had said.
Last week, Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy Subramanian had also drawn a cricket analogy to explain how economy could be revitalised with different approaches.
“Like in cricket, even in economy, planning matters. When the ball is swinging around a lot, when there is a lot of uncertainty, you need to play carefully and focus on survival.
“Essentially, when the ball is swinging, bat like (Cheteshwar) Pujara and when swing is gone, bat like (Rishabh) Pant, which is what Indian policy makers should focus on,” he said during a press conference on the Economic Survey for the year 2020-21.
Pujara had resolutely taken several hits to his body while staying put during the fourth Test in Brisbane, while Pant, in contrast, tore apart the Australian bowling attack with his eye-catching strokeplay.