Down Underdogs: Sony comes out with a four-part series to celebrate India’s triumph in Australia

Down Underdogs, the feel-good documentary recaps India’s 2-1 triumph in Australia in 2020-21.

Down Underdogs: Sony comes out with a four-part series to celebrate India’s triumph in Australia (©SonyLiv)

With the advent of OTT platforms, users have more say about the type of content they watch. To each his own, whether it's crime, thriller, rom-com or a good sitcom. In the past few years, there has been an increase in documentaries as well. For us sports enthusiasts, there is some very good content out there. The unrestricted access, in-depth analysis, behind the scene moments - it’s a treat.

After Amazon Prime’s The Test, Disney’s Roar of the Lion, and Netflix's Yellow Fever, SonyLiv has come up with Down Underdogs. The feel-good documentary recaps India’s 2-1 triumph in Australia in 2020-21. The victory itself was nothing short of a Bollywood drama where India made a comeback from behind to take the series. The high-octane Test matches captured the minds and imagination of sports fans around the world.

For the uninitiated, India toured Australia for a four-match Test series in 2020–21. Prior to the series, skipper Virat Kohli had announced his unavailability after the first Test in Adelaide to accompany his partner for the birth of their first child.

In that first game which was a day-night affair, Australia bullied the Indian team into submission and knocked them over for just 36 in the third innings. No one gave the Indian contingent any chance whatsoever to turn things around with their key batter and leader missing from the rest of the games.

What transpired after that made the world take notice and applaud the strength, grit, determination and resolve displayed by the men in blue.

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As the series progressed India kept on losing players due to injuries and niggles. To put things in context India was without Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav by the fourth Test in Brisbane. Each game had a narrative of its own and the series went down until the last match, last day and last hour.

The documentary was released to mark the second anniversary of India’s triumph.

The four-part documentary features exclusive interviews and voices from the likes of Harsha Bhogle, Rajdeep Sardesai, Gaurav Kapoor and Isha Guha. Along with notable faces, journalists, and presenters of the game, the series also features legends of the game: Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Clarke, Jason Gillespie and Nick Knight.

To top things up, you have bites from the players involved in the series as well: Mohammed Siraj, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant.

The series was rated at 9.4 by IMDB which tells you how well the makers have fared at weaving a story around the game. Rest assured, you will be on the edge of your seats asking what happens next and rooting for the underdogs.

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