Let it no longer be even whispered that India are poor travellers. A resilient Indian side didn't need the stirring 72-run triumph at the WACA on Saturday to reiterate that it is almost equally at home away, in a manner of speaking, but it certainly didn't harm its cause!

Just savour these numbers. Since November 2000, India have won 17 of 49 Tests overseas — while losing an equal number. While seven of them have come in Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, they have also won twice each in Pakistan, the West Indies, England and now Australia, and once apiece in Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Impressive? It should be, considering no team apart from World champions Australia have more away wins in that period.

Any surprise, then, that India are ranked the number two Test side in the world, and will continue to hold that spot no matter what happens in Adelaide next week? And in case you are wondering why the Australians are eternally wary of the Indian challenge, these stats might help. Since 1998, India and Australia have squared off in 21 Tests, the Aussies holding a 10-8 edge with three draws. Australia have made a habit of mauling oppositions and are so far ahead of the chasing pack that it is difficult to see anyone catching them in the foreseeable future. To run them as close as India have suggests emphatically that there is more to Indian cricket than just supposed hype.

Clear pattern
There is a clear pattern to the 10 overseas wins India have achieved in the last six years and four months, not counting Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and beginning with Sri Lanka in Kandy in August 2001. While several outstanding individual performances have marked every one of those triumphs, two men stand head and shoulders above the rest. One is 35, technician supreme, a man for all seasons and surfaces, who even on this tour has shown the strength of mind over matter. The other is 37, captain courageous, leg-spinner awesome who has comprehensively bridged the gulf in figures between home and away Tests, and particularly in the last four years.

Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble, at once the past and the present and not necessarily because the latter succeeded the former as the Test captain. It's a wonderful combination — after all, caught Dravid bowled Kumble appears in Test score cards a whopping 54 times! — of two quiet, understated individuals, each one a champion performer without being celebrated in the manner of a Sachin Tendulkar or a Sourav Ganguly.

Neither man has complained at not quite receiving his due from outside; within the team, they are recognised as the giants they are, and oppositions pen them down as the most diligent and therefore dangerous pliers of their respective trades in the Indian side.

Prolific Dravid
Dravid has figured in all ten of India's meaningful away wins since 2000; Kumble missed the first two, but has since more than made up for lost opportunities. In those ten Tests, Dravid's phlegmatic, immovable presence has yielded 1248 runs in 17 innings at a stunning average of 83.2, including three hundreds and six fifties. Kumble's numbers are equally outstanding — 48 wickets in eight games at 22, three five-wicket hauls. Both men have comfortably outdone their own career figures in Tests in which India have triumphed overseas. Tells a tale in itself, doesn't it?

There is, of course, more to Dravid and Kumble than mere runs and wickets, averages and strike rates. Both Bangaloreans are work horses. Dravid loves batting long periods, blunting the opposition attack and assiduously setting the stage for the glory boys to come and paint their pretty pictures; Kumble relishes bowling over after over, never mind the state of the pitch or which day of the Test it is. He wears the same intensity in the last over of a long, tiring day as he does in its first, always probing, looking for a weakness, working out means to create a doubt.

Dravid arrived in Australia under a little cloud threatening to snowball. Pitchforked into the opener's role, he was castigated for his defensiveness in Melbourne, but the battling half-century in the first innings in Sydney appears to have lifted the load off his shoulders. When it would have been tempting for most to surrender, Dravid has forever enjoyed battling the odds. Even in middling form, his continues to be the most coveted Indian scalp, even if Tendulkar is the most feared Indian batsman.

The not so odd couple of Indian cricket will target another flourish in Adelaide next week as India seek to seal their resurgence with a series-levelling win.