SINCE The Ashes there has been little to be positive about and cricket in this country has suffered enormously.

Perhaps for the first time since the mid-1980s, cricket lovers around the nation not only did not trust the Test team, but they didn’t respect their abilities. The only warmth came from the UAE sun, not supporters of the summer game.

It has been a brutal six months in which we’ve seen the departure of the captain, vice-captain, coach and CEO. Sandpaper gate hurt everyone from Jonny on the street to James Sutherland and casualties came thick and fast as a result.

At the Sport Australia Hall of Fame gala in Melbourne on Thursday night a high ranking Cricket Australia official asked me to “be positive” about the game this summer.

His polite suggestion was met with a reply of “yes, absolutely,” but philosophically the media must be authentic rather than givers of blind praise. To re-use an old phrase, journalists must call a spade a spade. Fans demand it.

But against every odd drafted by even the most shifty Pakistani booking agency, this Dubai spade was nothing short of stunning. A gutsy, inspiring, uplifting performance at a time the sport truly needed it in Australia.

After the draw in Dubai – which has a Miracle on Ice type ring to it in tone and substance – fans can rejoice again and so they should. A nationwide goggle box would have shown lounge rooms across the country erupt in jubilation when Tim Paine and Nathan Lyon survived.

For the highest office in the land - aside from whoever the Prime Minister is - captain Paine’s efforts and Langer’s impact signal a brand new and refreshing era in Australian cricket.

Australia’s innings lasted 139.5 overs and halted Pakistan’s charge towards what appeared to be a certain victory 24 hours ago. It was the longest fourth innings by an Australian team in Asia and the fourth longest from any team in these oppressive conditions.

Australia has not batted for longer in a fourth innings – in any conditions – since 1971. Usman Khawaja, who averaged 14.62 in the subcontinent before this match, batted for 125 of these overs. He was on the field for 27 out of a possible 30 hours this Test and faced a total of 463 deliveries for 226 runs.

But when he was dismissed with an hour remaining in the match, closely followed by Mitch Starc and Peter Siddle, it was left to captain Paine and Lyon to face the remaining 74 deliveries.

Ultimately they would need to combat just 73 balls, with Paine clenching his fist in delight following a routine forward defence that was surely the most vital of his career yet a straightforward skill he’s probably completed 30,000 times.

At one stage Pakistan had every fielder around the bat for compulsive sweeper Lyon, who played with a straight blade worthy of Rahul Dravid YouTube highlights that only purists can appreciate. For once runs were not the highlights while leaves and nervous prods were.

This was Test cricket - white clothes, red ball, extreme tension - remember that?

Imagine if you had told an Aussie cricket fan 12 months ago that Paine, Khawaja and debutants Aaron Finch and Travis Head would be critical players on a dust-bowl in Dubai to bat out a day and draw a Test. You’d be immediately collected and taken to a mental institution for assessment and orange juice. Not to mention Siddle’s unlikely re-emergence in the XI.

Finch and Paine were barely fringe Sheffield Shield players last October (the former with one first-class century to his name), Khawaja had only ever scored one ton overseas and Head was a white-ball specialist who struggled to get off strike against spin in all three formats.

And overseeing this remarkable revolution – that admittedly has been born from regrettable actions in South Africa – is Justin Langer, whose greatest attribute was grit and determination as a batsman across 105 Tests.

If teams play in the mould of their coach as experts suggest, then this draw is a better advertisement for Langer’s direction than a handful of Big Bash and state titles in Perth. No longer does the team project an “alpha” mentality. Playing your natural game, although entertaining, can be fraught with danger.

In the second innings against Pakistan the Australians batted with a plan and shoved the ego back in the kit-bag alongside the sandpaper. The Baggygreens were the same, but those wearing them were new and improved, almost as if they had been rehabilitated.

Khawaja reverse swept as commonly as Adam Gilchrist would hook and pull in his pomp, while Finch’s front pad – which has resembled a dartboard for bowlers at Shield level – remained leg-side of the conventional and reverse swinging ball.

This is not to suggest the performance was flawless (clearly it was far from it), but the result signified the new and vastly improved Australia.

From the depths of despair and sufferers of universal criticism that saw English journalists travel to South Africa from London to cover a controversy involving precisely none of their own players, this Australian XI simply found a way to fight.

Only now, following months of reflection, admonishment and official reviews, does cricket in this country have some respect back.

Australia shook hands with their opponents before the game, after the game, and in between exemplified the dogged spirit many thought was extinct.

After Cape Town, Paine said he would like to captain a side Australians would be proud of.

The high-ranking official at the Crown Palladium function is no longer the only one who is proud.

He now has 20 million mates who share the same gratitude.