India’s bowlers ravaged Australia’s batting line up on 1st Day even after getting bowled out for a below-par 150 runs in 49.4 overs. Jasprit Bumrah was the wrecker in chief who bowled pin point deliveries and took 4 wickets and conceded only 17 runs in 10 overs. This is the second instance where Jasprit Bumrah is leading India in Test match (*Rohit Sharma is not playing due to personal reasons) (*earlier in 5th Test match 2022 against England).
Australia are in deep trouble with 7 wickets down for 67 runs and all the star players are back in dug out except the wicket-keeper batter Alex Carey. It won’t be wrong to say that Aussie batters were in a hurry to dominate in the evening session & also allowed the bowlers to bowl a string of maiden overs which created a lot of pressure.
Playing 11 of India & Australia
Australia handed the Test cap to Nathan McSweeney who now has come into the team as a replacement for David Warner & Steven Smith will go back in the middle order. India’s playing 11 raised a lot of eyebrows as Ravichandran Ashwin nor Ravindra Jadeja got a place in the team as the management went ahead with Washington Sundar who doesn’t have that ample experience. Instead of picking Akash Deep as third pacer, Harshit Rana was included in the team.
Australia 1 Nathan McSweeney, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Travis Head, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood
India: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 Rishabh Pant, 6 Dhruv Jurel, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Australian bowlers on top in the morning session
The Aussies quicks: Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood & Pat Cummins kept on bowling off-stump channel deliveries. Yashasvi Jaiswal was trapped by Mitchell Starc when he wanted to play a cover drive shot but gave Nathan McSweeney a catch in the gully. Devdutt Padikkal who earlier was in India’s ‘A’ squad and got drafted in the main squad for his performances had a forgettable outing as he was out for a 23 ball duck.
Josh Hazlewood set up Virat Kohli brilliantly, the star batter was standing ahead of the crease and Hazlewood bowled a bit of short ball & Virat Kohli was surprised with the bounce and gave a catch in the 1st slip to Usman Khawaja. All of a sudden India’s score was 32-3 in 16.2 overs.
KL Rahul showed a lot of patience by leaving the deliveries as the Aussie bowlers tried to cramp by enticing him to play a shot in covers. KL Rahul did all of the hard work but in the 23rd over, there was a controversial decision by the 3rd umpire of caught out by wicket-keeper Carey. Many experts stated that enough angles weren’t shown by the broadcasters for overturning the decision as the bat had hit the pad as well on the bowling of Mitchell Starc. KL Rahul would rue that he couldn’t convert his start as he scored 26 runs in 74 balls and struck 3 fours. India’s score at the end of morning session was 51-4 in 25 overs.
Rishabh Pant & Nitish Kumar Reddy play fiery knocks & take India out of trouble
Skipper Pat Cummins immediately brought in the flamboyant all-rounder Mitchell Marsh in the afternoon session. Mitchell Marsh doesn’t have the express pace like Australia’s pace trio but the bowler showed a lot of discipline in his line & length. Marsh got 2 wickets: Dhruv Jurel & Washington Sundar as the all-rounder proved to be the surprise package and India was reeling at 73-6 in 31.4 overs.
Rishabh Pant gave a reminder to Australian bowlers that he doesn’t fear them by any means even on a greenish surface. Rishabh Pant along with the debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy bailed out India from a tricky position. Rishabh Pant played his funky shots against Pat Cummins & brought back the memories of the BGT 2020-21 Gabba test match where his heroics stunned the mighty Aussies.
Slowly & steadily Rishabh & Nitish were putting India’s batting on track. Nitish took on Nathan Lyon & didn’t look as he was making his Test cricket debut and was rotating the strike along with Rishabh Pant smartly. Pat Cummins finally broke the 48 runs partnership between the duo by foxing Rishabh Pant and sent him back in dug out as Pant scored 37 runs in 78 balls and struck 3 fours and 1 six.
Nitish Kumar Reddy took the role of aggressor after Pant got out and made sure that India get 150 runs on the board. Nitish managed to score an crucial 41 runs in 59 balls and smashed 6 fours and 1 huge six. Josh Hazlewood was the pick of the bowlers who took a 4 wicket haul in his 13 overs but astoundingly Pat Cummins conceded 67 runs in 15.4 overs (*grabbed 2 wickets as well) and was targeted by Indian batters.
Jasprit Bumrah run riot Australian batting lineup
Aussie openers Nathan McSweeney & Usman Khawaja looked to score quick runs but skipper Jasprit Bumrah had other ideas. Jasprit Bumrah got rid of Khawaja, McSweeney & Smith cheaply by hitting the deck hard and bowled a lot of good length deliveries. Aussies were reduced to 19-3 & the star batter Steven Smith was out on a golden duck as Bumrah had trapped him lbw where the batter went a bit too across the line wanted to flick it to leg side.
Travis Head was looking threatening as he was playing an attacking brand of cricket. Marnus Labuschagne was dropped by Virat Kohli in 2nd slip when he was on 0. Marnus was quite watchful in his approach. The tactic of making Harshit Rana bowl around the wicket to Travis Head worked brilliantly; the pacer dislodged the bails by creating a kind of a perfect angle to knock over Head.
The task was cut out for Mitchell Marsh & Marnus Labuschagne to stay at the crease & don’t play any lose shot. The speedster Mohammed Siraj was bowling a lot of short ball deliveries which was somewhat irking Marsh. Siraj got the better of Marsh when the batter tried to play the shot towards the third man despite there being more than 2 slips present & KL Rahul took a catch in 3rd slip. Marnus Labuschagne got into the shell by playing a lot of deliveries & Bumrah trapped him lbw as Australia was in a state of bother at 47-6 in 21 overs. Labuschagne faced 52 balls & scored only 2 runs.
Pat Cummins shockingly gave a catch to wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant & Bumrah was quite elated. Alex Carey & Mitchell Starc somehow played out the last 2.4 overs phase and the Aussies’ score was 67-7 in 27 overs. India has made a statement that the game of cricket is not being played on paper but on field.
What Lies ahead on Day 2
With Australia trailing by 83 runs and with only 3 wickets left, all eyes will be on Alex Carey to score quick runs with the tail-enders and make sure that deficit is less than 50 runs. Mitchell Starc would be targeted with short ball barrage by India. The morning session of Day 2 would be very much critical as the pitch can become a bit easier to bat.
India on the other hand would be pumped up. Head coach Gautam Gambhir & skipper Jasprit Bumrah would be aiming to wrap up the innings quickly as the game can drift away from them as well. It would be interesting to see whether Washington Sundar bowls as the surface hasn’t offered any great turn so far. It’s quite simple for India set a target around 300 & they would be in a very strong position to win the Test match.