Former Australia cricketer Allan Border on Sunday said India are “the real deal now” in world cricket, after Virat Kohli’s team took an unassailable 2-1 lead in the four-Test series Down Under.

India mopped up Australia’s tail on Sunday to win the third Test in Melbourne by 137 runs. The home team resumed at 258/8 after the morning session was wiped out by rain in their unlikely quest to hunt down a huge 399, which would have been a record fourth-innings chase at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

But they fell well short of the target, with Jasprit Bumrah taking the key wicket of dogged Pat Cummins and Ishant Sharma snaring Nathan Lyon to secure the emphatic win.

India have never won a Test series in Australia but now have a huge chance to correct that record when the fourth and final Test begins in Sydney on Thursday.

India had lost away series to South Africa and England earlier this year, but Border believes Kohli’s team is beginning to improve overseas.

“They’re the real deal now, they’re the No. 1 team,” Border told foxsports.com.au.

“They’ve had their struggles away from home, but they’re starting to improve because they’ve had some good fast bowling.

“Now they can combat Australia, South Africa and New Zealand – countries that produce those fast, bouncy, seaming wickets. They used to struggle on those, but they don’t struggle on those now.

“They’ve been a great side to watch and they deserve this win.”

Border praised the Indian bowling attack, after pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma, took 45 wickets together in three Tests so far.

“It’s as a good an Indian bowling attack as I’ve ever seen,” Border said.

“They’ve had some fantastic individual bowlers over the years, particularly famous for their spin, going back to when I first started with Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwath Chandrasekhar.

“Now they’ve settled on a fantastic fast-bowling group, plus they’ve got a couple in the wings that are pretty handy, plus they’ve got a couple of good spinners and their batting is very, very good,” he added.

With inputs from AFP