Fidgety feet and muddled minds sum up thrilling opening verse of BGT 2024-25
After the clock finally ticked 10.20 AM local time and the umpire called 'Play,' 77 of the most thrilling overs of Test cricket followed on Day 1 of the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 Test in Perth. Yet, the bragging rights for the day belonged unequivocally to the bowlers from both India and Australia, with the batters seemingly still in snooze mode.
The last thing the out-of-form batters from both sides needed was a spicy track with relentless world-class pacers slinging bullets at them. It exposed their lack of decisive footwork and a negative mindset from the word go.
Indian skipper Jasprit Bumrah had no hesitation in batting first yet what followed was batting of the highest order of hesitancy. The usually aggressive and confident Yashasvi Jaiswal missed a couple of gimmies on the pad before nicking off with hard hands for an eight-ball duck in his maiden stint in Australia.
The tentative batting continued with another youngster Devdutt Padikkal overawed by the magnitude of the occasion and the quality of the bowling. The southpaw had his misery finally put to an end by a miserly Josh Hazlewood for 0 off 23 deliveries.
At this point, India's score read 14/2 in 11 overs, with their fans sensing Deja vu after all they endured with the side's batting frailties in the recent home series against New Zealand.
The bad disintegrated to worse when the out-of-form Virat Kohli went the other way around with his feet from Jaiswal and Padikkal. Kohli constantly walked down the track to negate the movement from the Aussie pacers only to find himself undone by a delivery from the ever-reliable Hazlewood that bounced a tad extra and found his outside edge to leave India in tatters at 32/3.
The Indian batters clearly had cluttered minds and tentative footwork, symbolic of their recent dismal form and a lack of match practice on similar conditions.
A trio of contrasting heroes save India from the blushes
In a Test match dominated by the pacers thus far, smaller contributions from batters will likely go unnoticed. Yet, in hindsight, KL Rahul's 74-ball vigil for 26 might ultimately be the difference between the sides should India complete a miraculous victory.
Struggling for form and under immense scrutiny, Rahul was forced to open the innings in Rohit Sharma's absence. And while the runs did not flow, the Karnataka batter displayed tremendous restraint to ensure the floodgates did not open for the Aussie bowlers from both ends.
While he was eventually dismissed by a controversial decision in the 23rd over, it ensured the middle to lower middle-order batters at least had a chance to prosper against the older ball.
Australia's kryptonite from India's 2020-21 tour Rishabh Pant capitalized with an impressive 78-ball 37. He was accompanied by debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy, who top-scored for India with a compact 41 off 59 balls.
Reddy's inclusion did not impress several fans and experts with Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar saying to the local broadcasters after the toss:
"I would have thought that on these Australian wickets, there are big boundaries, so I thought you would have gone with both of them (Ashwin and Jadeja). But this is a new management, new thinking. They have gone with Nitish Kumar Reddy, who is a promising cricketer, make no mistake about that. But is he ready for Test cricket?"
Yet, the 21-year-old, without the mental baggage from the New Zealand series, exhibited decisive footwork that evaded several of his peers. Reminding everyone of Hanuma Vihari's Sydney heroics in 2020-21, Reddy helped India reach 150 - a score that seemed unlikely at 73/6.
The most obvious difference between Pant and Reddy, compared to most of the other Indian batters? Clarity in mindset and clinical footwork - two words that went missing from batters from both teams for most of the opening day.
India unleash the Bumrah card to expose Australia's batting frailties
As India's underwhelming batting innings came to a close, questions were being asked of stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah's decision to bat first on a seamer-friendly Perth wicket. Here's a little remembered fact - Australia batted first in all four previous Tests at the venue and pulled off convincing wins.
Yet, Bumrah took matters into his own hands to vindicate his decision at the toss. The champion pacer produced one of the jaw-dropping opening spells that read 3/9 in six overs to turn the game on its head.
While the Indian batting frailties were well documented in the build-up to the series, their Australian counterparts' similar struggles had been largely masked. Yet, except Cameron Green, who is out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, none of the other batters in the Australian top 6 average even 30 in Tests this calendar year.
Much like the Indian batters, a lack of decisiveness in footwork was evident in the Australian response. Marnus Labuschagne's 52-ball two was anything but a sight to the sore eye and his idol Steve Smith fared no better with a golden duck. The duo were prime examples of batters stuck on the crease without committing on the front or back foot.
Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, and Mitchell Marsh, all of whom average in the 20s this year like Smith and Labuschange, fell like a pack of cards. Bumrah was the chief wrecker with outstanding figures of 4/17, while his sidekicks Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana combined for three wickets.
At an embarrassing 67/7 in 27 overs, Australia's continued batting nightmares even on home conditions are looking more like a trend than a blip.
Why India's batting collapse on Day 1 of BGT down under is nothing worrisome
While a fourth sub-200 total in their last seven Test innings might worry Indian fans in the big picture, a torrid display on the opening day of a Border-Gavaskar Trophy down under is just par for the course.
For context, even in their historic back-to-back series wins in 2018-19 and 2020-21, the Indian batters succumbed to the occasion and the alien conditions.
On a way more batting-friendly track in the first Test of their 2018-19 tour in Adelaide, Team India mustered a mere 250 on Day 1. Yet, they overcame the poor showing to not only win that encounter by 31 runs but also the series 2-1. The latter stages of the series even saw India pile on massive totals of 443/7 and 622/7 declared.
Switch to 2020-21 and the situation was grimmer with India scoring only 244 on the opening day of the first Test at Adelaide. They sunk even lower in the second innings, recording their lowest-ever Test score of 36 to suffer an eight-wicket defeat.
However, the Asian giants scored 300+ in four of their next five innings on the tour to complete a thrilling 2-1 series win.
While this is in no way a denial of India's blatantly visible holes in the batting department, all is not lost for the rest of the series in Australia, going by the glorious recent past.