It couldn’t have been more poignant. From act to outcome and definitely to the reaction. Marnus Labuschagne shouldering arms to Jasprit Bumrah and getting pinged on his pads in front of his stumps off what would become the last ball of the day.
The shadows had lengthened by then around the Perth Stadium, casting a dark hue over the centre square, with the 22 yards in the middle reduced almost to a dark space.
It couldn’t have been darker than the cloud that seemed to have shrouded the home team’s batting line-up though on one of the most humbling days for the Australian Test team on home soil. Probably ever. So much so that the top-order collapse in the dying moments of the third day’s play seemed inevitable. It was coming. Like there was nothing Australia could do to avoid it. And there stood Jasprit Bumrah at the top of his mark, like the Dark Knight, to deliver the final blow.
Nathan McSweeney had already come and gone, being trapped in front of his stumps, by an unerring Bumrah delivery that was on its way to hit the middle of his middle stump. Pat Cummins, who’d taken up the responsibility of being the night watcher upon himself, didn’t last too long either, walking off with his head down in a symbolic moment as the captain of a ship that was going down rapidly in Perth.
Then came the agonising moment for Labuschagne, under siege after an untoward knock in the first innings, as he was knocked down to his knees, literally, as the ball from Bumrah cannoned into his pads. And all parties involved had started to make their way off the darkened Optus Stadium outfield, except Australia’s No 3, as he stood with his head bowed in the middle of an emptying oval, wondering how it had got to this.
While Labuschagne dragged himself off the field, a few meters to his left, the Indians were in high spirits, with the only bone of contention being who’ll lead them off the field. Bumrah wanted Virat Kohli to do the honours, Kohli pushed Jaiswal to do so, with the young superstar reluctantly and sheepishly agreeing to walk the Indians past the ropes on a day that they’ll never forget. On a day that Australia will want to forget in a hurry, even if they can’t. Or will not be allowed to.
It was a day for moments though. Starting with when Jaiswal introduced himself to the Australian audiences in empathic fashion, playing the most outrageous of shots to announce himself as one of the most outrageous of talents to arrive on these shores. If the sight of the 22-year-old with his arms aloft and his eyes closed in the middle of the Perth Stadium was the harbinger of what’s to come, the sight of Kohli blowing kisses to his wife was how it has been whenever the master batter has played Test cricket in Australia.
It was a moment that Australia had experienced before, seeing Kohli raising his bat. But worryingly, the sight of Jaiswal bringing up a Test ton here could well be an inevitability that Australia might just have to get used to.
When Jaiswal was finally out, he’d outscored both India and Australia in their first innings. He’d also shown the maturity, the technique, and the hunger to succeed in these conditions. Not to forget the superstar ability to recognise his moment, his stage, and his position. To come to a country that’s always waiting to judge and rate overseas talents that they’ve heard about, with all the hype around him, and then to deliver was as impressive as all the shots he played and for how much he looked at home here.
Kohli has spent an entire career dealing with that hype and expectation. But like Jaiswal did on Sunday, the former captain has spent most of that career, recognising and then seizing that moment.
And though he couldn’t have asked for a better foundation than what Jaiswal and KL Rahul had provided him with, he was still in the spotlight when he walked out to bat after having looked a bit out of sorts in the first innings. It wasn’t the kind of Kohli century, his 30th, that will be remembered for what it meant to his team’s cause in the Test match. But it was more about what it could mean for the rest of the tour and the series.
There will be many trademark Kohli shots in the highlights reel, from the cover-drive off Mitchell Starc, to the upper cut that went for six off the left-arm fast bowler to a bunch of powerful pull shots against Mitchell Marsh. With the on-drive for four off Cummins probably the best of the lot. But this was more than how he looked at the crease or what he ended up with. Kohli getting to three-figures and setting up his summer was a gut punch to Australia on a day they’d already been knocked down to their knees by the Indian top-order. That is before they were knocked cold on the floor by Bumrah to cap off a day that will be remembered very differently across both countries.