Virat Kohli was the youngest member of the 15-man squad when India lifted the 2011 World Cup at the Wankhede Stadium. He was understandably jubilant, but he didn't quite share the same emotions at that triumph as a Sachin Tendulkar, a Virender Sehwag or a Harbhajan Singh did. After all, unlike that troika, it was his first World Cup, and he had the winner's medal around his neck at the first time of asking.

Yesterday, after lifting the Border-Gavaskar Trophy following India's first Test series victory in Australia - something no side had managed in the previous 71 years - the Indian captain could empathise with those to whom the 2011 World Cup success had meant the most. This was his third Test tour of Australia, and the two preceding ones had ended in unmitigated heartbreak.