India’s series win over Australia proves that the current squad has the potential to become a dominant force on foreign soil, head coach Anil Kumble said. “With this kind of line-up, with the lower-order contributions, I don’t see any reason why we can’t start winning abroad,” he added.

India beat Australia by eight wickets in Dharamsala on Tuesday to win the four-Test series 2-1 and regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Kumble praised the Indian team for fighting back after losing the first Test in Pune and winning the series, after a long home season which started in September and involved 13 Tests. “It’s fantastic,” he said. “We spoke about it that we will take one series at a time, one match at a time, one session at a time. To come back from 1-0 down, when you could see there were tired bodies around, it was brilliant.”

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The former India leg-spinner was also impressed with the way the Indian team reacted after losing captain Virat Kohli to an injury for the series decider in Dharamsala. Ajinkya Rahane captained India in Kohli’s absence and led the team to a fantastic win.

“After Virat’s injury, the team stood up,” Kumble said. “Rahane led the team brilliantly after losing the toss. Then, chasing 300 was a brilliant effort and yesterday the bowlers were brilliant. The fast bowlers throughout the season have bowled brilliantly. They bowled quick and the mind games done on the pitch that changed the way we approached the game.”

After a Test season that lasted for 13 Test matches on home soil, Kumble said that there are plenty of positives the team can take from it. “The positives have been adapting to conditions,” he said. We have had almost 25 players starting from West Indies. All 25 have stood up in different conditions. Even the new home venues, we didn’t know how those pitches would behave. Everybody has put his hands up. The one area we need to improve is catching, that is something we have to look into.”

Talking about his bowling unit, Kumble was impressed by the world’s No 1 Test bowler Ravindra Jadeja. “Jaddu was brilliant through the season,” he said. “[Ravichandran] Ashwin of course we know what he is capable of, but Jaddu has always been in the shadows. But he has now come out of it and to be the No 1 spinner is brilliant.”