It was a colossal happening at the sell-out Feroze Shah Kotla in Delhi when the mighty Aussies put India’s dominance at home in tatters when they blew them away for 237 while defending a modest 272 in the deciding one-day. There were celebrations. The Aussie players and the coach Justin Langer were ecstatic. The Indian fans as well as the players were in disbelief as they had lost a one-day series for the first time in four years – and that too, after taking a lead of 2-0. The young Aussies proved their mettle and their ability to bounce back from obscurity.

The ball tampering saga – in which Steve Smith and David Warner, the backbone of the Australian team in all three formats of the game were handed one-year bans – has proved a blessing in disguise. They had been tearing the oppositions apart but after that their performance declined in all forms of the game, both home and away.

But Australia’s cricket history is full of such incidents. They have bounced back from series of losses before and without senior players thumped away the oppositions. This series has been no different. They thrashed the Indians in the T20 series 2-0 in which Glenn Maxwell played two heroic knocks. He scored 56 off 43 balls to help them reach the target off the last ball. Then he struck the 3rd T20 century of his career, scoring 113 not out off just 55 balls, smashing the Indian bowlers to all parts of M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The Aussies have showed great resilience and have shown that they are the favourites for the World Cup where they will be having the services of Steve Smith and David Warner as their bans came to an end this month.

The stellar performance in this series makes Pakistan-Australia series even more interesting and tough for the young Pakistan side.

Australia will give a real fight to the young Pakistani team in the one-day series which begins on March 22.

The Australians have gone through a lot of humiliation as the ball tampering incident took their performances to an all-time low. They lost 5-0 in one-day series in England – they were smashed for a record 484 runs in the third. They lost the Test series to Pakistan in the UAE 1-0 and the T20 series 3-0.

They were also defeated by Pakistan in the tri-series final in Zimbabwe. Their new captain Tim Paine was also misfiring with the bat and captaincy. The Indians defeated them in the four-Test series in their summer by 2-1, becoming the first team from the Subcontinent to win a test series in Australia. The Aussies were also defeated by South Africa in both ODIs and T20s.

In the recent one day series, they got a new ODI star – Usman Khawaja scored two centuries and two fifties after being out of the one-day side.

Pat Cummins bowled with sheer pace and showed his skills, taking 14 scalps in the series. There was economical bowling from Adam Zampa and there was brute force of Peter Handscomb with the bat. The latter scored a masterful 117 of 105 and a 50, smashing the spinners through traditional sweep shots.

Virat Kohli declared the World Cup race wide open after the upset in the series against Australia.

Their captain Aaron Finch credited the victory to the hard work they put in and the resilience they showed. They chased 359 in the third one-day and defended a modest 272 in the deciding one day.

They will show no mercy to Pakistan who is a young team and without the regular captain Sarfraz Ahmed. They will be led by Shoaib Malik whose captaincy record has been poor. Ravi Bopara raised questions about his captaincy when he led Karachi Kings in PSL.

Multan Sultans were knocked out in the league matches in both editions under his captaincy.

Pakistan recently lost the T20 series to South Africa 2-1 which ended their stellar two-and-a-half-year unbeaten streak.

Pakistan should test the players who have emerged recently such as Ahsan Ali and Mohammad Hasnain.

Ten ODIs – five each against Australia and England – will make it clear which team would be the most favourite.

The emergence of the West Indies against England has rung alarm bells. The West Indies should not be under-estimated. South Africa and England are also tough fighters.