Last year, this time around, Australia’s fortress — The Gabba — was finally breached. It took 32 years and 2 months, but the unthinkable was achieved after an injury-ravaged young Indian team defeated Australia by three wickets against all odds to win the series. To commemorate the oneyear anniversary of Team India’s historic Test series win Down Under, Sony Sports Network has produced a special docuseries titled ‘Down Underdogs – India’s Greatest Comeback’ that will premiere with the first episode on January 14, 2022.
To bring fans closer to the historic win and to ensure all Indians enjoy the blockbuster episodes with their close family members and friends, Sony Sports Network will launch the 4-part docuseries in Hindi & English followed by a Tamil and Telugu release on a later date.
Each episode of the 4-part docuseries aptly titled THE ADELAIDE ABERRATION, MELBOURNE MAGIC, THE SYDNEY SIEGE & BRISBANE BREACHED will be telecast daily from January 14, 2022, to January 17, 2022, at 8:00 PM on SONY SIX & SONY TEN 4 in English, SONY TEN 3 in Hindi and will also be available on their on-demand OTT platform SonyLIV. The docuseries will also be aired on SONY MAX HD, SONY SAB HD and SONY PIX channels.
When India won a Test series in Australia in 2018-19, it was a first, but it was attributed to the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner. However, the series win in 2020-21 was an extraordinary feat and will go down in history as one of Team India’s greatest comebacks in the sport. Recording their lowest score in an innings in Test cricket with 36 runs and all out and without their talismanic batsman & skipper, Virat Kohli and a host of first-choice players, their chances looked quite grim. Obituaries were being written about Australia whitewashing India Down Under and then India produced one of the finest fightbacks in their Test history.
Led by an inspired performance from Jasprit Bumrah and R Ashwin with the ball and a brilliant hundred from stand-in-captain, Ajinkya Rahane, the resurgence had begun for the remainder of the series. Injuries ravaged this surge as India barely had an XI to field at The Gabba and had to dig deep into their reserves and call upon the services of T Natarajan and Washington Sundar.
And yet, against all adversity, history, numbers, statistics, India found new heroes to rise to the occasion to not only save the Test but have the determination to go on and win it.
‘Down Underdogs – India’s Greatest Comeback’ has been entirely produced in-house amidst some extremely challenging Covid-19 scenarios. Interviews with players and commentators located in England and Australia were conducted via local partnerships and remote production technology. The creative team had to constantly deal with access issues due to player and commentator bio-bubbles and was able to assemble a stellar panel despite all limitations. The series will showcase two current Indian Test stars and some of cricket’s most respected voices capturing one of India’s finest sporting achievements in recent history. Current players like Mohammed Siraj and Hanuma Vihari along with prominent personalities like Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Clarke, Jason Gillespie, Sanjay Manjrekar, Lisa Sthalekar, Nick Knight and Isa Guha will help fans relive the ‘Ultimate Test Series’, as declared by ICC after the series.
Apart from the world-class cricketing insights, a team of raconteurs like Rajdeep Sardesai, Harsha Bhogle, Ayaz Memon, Joy Bhattacharjya and Gaurav Kapur will rekindle the romance that is Test cricket and help navigate through the incredible subplots and storylines in this classic triumphagainst-all-odds fable. Down Underdogs has received a great response with brands like Byju’s Classes, Skoda and Dafa News coming on-board
Get all the IPL news and Cricket Score here