India emerged victorious on the first day of the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia in Perth, with 17 wickets falling. Stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah took 4-17 for the tourists, but their star player Virat Kohli continued to struggle.
Credit was given to the bowlers for taking 17 wickets on the first day of a Test match in Australia after 73 years, attributing it to the fair surface providing swing and seam movement.
The tourists batted first under beautiful weather at the Optus Stadium, but were dismissed for 150 at Tea, mainly due to a 48-run seventh-wicket stand by Rishabh Pant (37) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (41). Josh Hazlewood was the main creator of India’s downfall, spearheading the intimidating Australian pace attack with figures of 4-29.
Jasprit Bumrah, filling in as captain for Rohit Sharma who stayed back in India for the arrival of his second child, did not allow anyone to outshine him and alone brought down the hosts to 19-3 in his first four overs.
“He’s an amazing bowler and showcased his abilities today – swing, seam, pace, and his leadership skills,” Australia seamer Mitchell Starc (2-14) informed ABC Grandstand radio in Australia about the Indian captain.
“We were pretty happy after two sessions, we got the ball in the right areas but India have come out and followed suit and bowled pretty well – it was a good day to be a bowler.”
Kohli was unable to halt the downward spiral for himself or for India.
The prominent focus before the series was on Virat Kohli, with only two Test centuries in the past five years. The 36-year-old faced the new ball early alongside Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal, who replaced the injured Shubman Gill, but both were dismissed without scoring by Mitchell Starc (2-14) and Hazelwood.
Kohli didn’t stay for much longer before getting out to a rising delivery from Hazlewood, caught by Usman Khawaja at slip. By lunchtime, the tourists were 51-4, with Starc and Hazlewood each taking 2-10 from their eight overs.
There was a lot of anticipation before the game about how the Indian bowling lineup would look with Bumrah, Siraj, and Harshit Rana, and both players proved their worth during the evening session.
Indian seamers bowled fuller lengths than Australian bowlers, causing the hosts’ batters to dodge deliveries with equal aggression.
Australia has a lot of things to improve on.
Marnus Labuschagne batted for over ninety minutes, scoring 2 runs off 52 deliveries, before being dismissed as the sixth Australian player in the evening session, caught leg before wicket by Siraj for his second wicket.
In the innings, only Alex Carey managed to score in the twenties, while Nathan McSweeney and Travis Head reached double figures. Carey is not out on 19 overnight, with Starc partnering him for the last 2.4 overs of the day.
Starc mentioned that the pitch is firm, with a lot of bounce and some swing. If you manage to make it past that time and reach a ball that is less hard, things will start to get a bit easier. There are definitely obstacles present, and our task is to overcome them if possible and then capitalize on opportunities with the ball.
On the first day, anything is possible in the morning. There is another chance to play, but many improvements to make.
