'Just continue!': When Shardul Thakur didn't convey Ravi Shastri's message to Vihari and Ashwin in Sydney

Team India's historic Test series win against Australia will be celebrated for ages.While the Ajinkya Rahane-led side won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-1,the Indian team had to face numerous challenges during the series including quarantine restrictions, injuries to key players among other things.

India started off the Test series with a humiliating defeat in Adelaide where the visitors were bundled off for a record-low of 36. However, showing great grit and resilience, the Indian team bounced back to win the Melbourne Test, draw Sydney Test and end the series by breaching Australia's fortress the Gabba.

While the wins in Melbourne and Gabba will be remembered for long, the heroic show in Sydney will never be forgotten by the Indian fans.

During a conversation with India's fielding coach R Sridhar, Ravichandran Ashwin, in his YouTube channel, revealed an interesting yet hilarious incident involving Shardul Thakur.

While Ravichandran Ashwin, with a sore back, and Hanuma Vihari, with a torn hamstring, were battling out to save the Sydney Test on Day 5, Indian team management sent bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur to the ground to pass on a message for the duo in the middle.

The full conversation between Ravichandran Ashwin and R Sridhar on Shardul Thakur conveying the message from the dressing room:

Ashwin: Already I was padded up and standing from the morning because of my back pain. And then suddenly there was talk of Jadeja batting. And then suddenly Shastri came and said 'Ash, go!' After I went in, there were multiple messages from Shastri. Take us through those.

Sridhar: At one end, the bounce was a bit uneven and you got hit. We were worried about two things - one, a batsman getting out. And two, if Ash was injured, there was only Ravi Shastri left to play! Lot of things at stake, so he sent a message through Shardul.

He called for Shardul and said 'go tell Ashwin that I told him to play Lyon and Vihari to play the pacers'.

Ashwin: We were oblivious to it. We were keeping on playing the same way, and Vihari came and said Ash I'm feeling a bit distracting, so let's rotate strike for a couple of overs. And we got a single. Vihari played off-spin, and after an over, he came and said I'm unable to move my feet! Somehow we survived.

Shardul came running in and said "they're talking a lot of things inside. But I won't tell you anything! You both are playing well, just continue!" We were wondering what kind of a message this is.

Sridhar: And we were thinking he conveyed the message to you guys! And then every ball became an event. You batted till tea, and then we started believing. We had 249 balls, and Shastri would say 'Shabash' after every ball.

Ashwin and Vihari, battling injuries, defied all the odds to remain unbeaten on Day 5 of the Sydney Test to help India draw the Test. Courtesy the drawn Sydney Test, the series remained at 1-1 which also gave a window to the Indian team to go for the kill in Brisbane as they won theTest series 2-1.