Test cricket on speed. It’s in vogue, and not just in the country that seems to be obsessed with it the most. Of course it’s mainly associated with fast-scoring and batters playing outrageous shots, with bowlers basically there just for the taking. Or taken for granted either way, on pitches which are designed to encourage these supposedly daredevil batters show off their brazen daredevilry.
It was a slightly different story at the Optus Stadium in Perth on Friday (November 22). This was Test cricket on speed as well. But of a slightly different kind.
With a couple of fast bowlers, that too probably the two best practitioners of their craft in the modern game at the helm, what else could you have expected. There was no way the batters were going to have their way. If anything, the way it played out, you’d have thought this was a script specifically designed by two fast bowling captains, where the batters from both sides were at their mercy, and they could dictate terms from start to finish.
As they did on a day where 17 wickets fell on a pitch which couldn’t be held solely responsible for what was a staggering outcome for an opening day of a high-profile series between India and Australia. It probably started at the toss itself, with both Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins sounding keen that their respective batters take a dive into the deep end against, well, their respective counterparts.
And while it was the Indian top-order who were tasked with countering the likes of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood to start with, you can imagine a scenario where the Aussie top-order would have found it equally difficult against Bumrah & Co, as they would later in the day.
So, let’s start with Starc and Hazlewood. This is the best rhythm the starry new-ball duo have been in over the last few summers. Not to mention how fresh they’ve seemed across multiple practice sessions in Perth over the last few days. And it was very evident in the way they ran in from pretty much the first over of the day. It was Starc who struck first by getting Yashasvi Jaiswal flashing at a full delivery on off-stump, before Hazlewood showed why he’s probably the ultimate threat in these conditions.
Having bowled an incisive spell to open the attack, he returned just when Devdutt Padikkal was trying his best to break free.
You could see the dismissal coming from miles out, literally from the moment the gangly New South Wales fast bowler stood at the top of his mark. Padikkal had started to show off his anxiety at not being able to score, attempting untoward shots and looking keen to spar at any delivery that he thought was there in his scoring arc. Hazlewood would produce the length that would have Padikkal edging surely. And after beating the outside-edge with his very first delivery before changing his angle slightly to hit the left-hander on the pads off back to back deliveries, he slipped in a slightly fuller delivery, which pitched and angled away just enough to have Padikkal poking and having him caught behind the wicket.
Virat Kohli entered the arena to much fanfare, as is the norm, but he looked more desperate than eager to get after the Aussie bowlers. Whether it was with the way he stood well outside his crease to counter the Australians’ lengths or his intention to impose himself on them. On another day, Kohli’s keenness to be aggressive with his approach might have come off. But this was a day where the fast bowlers were calling the shots, and despite having pulled off a convincing punch down the ground off Cummins in the previous over, Kohli fell prey to how far outside his crease he’d stretched out, getting beaten by the bounce Hazlewood managed to generate off a good length, awkwardly edging it to Usman Khawaja at first slip.
Unlike what Australia would dish out later in the day, India at least had KL Rahul fighting through the toughest period to at least give himself an opportunity to progress beyond the seeing off the new-ball stage. His dismissal will be discussed for a while to come, especially if the result does go against India eventually.
What the opener’s contribution did ensure was that India’s lower-order could deal with a slightly older ball, which saw the very impressive Nitish Kumar Reddy pull off one of the more impressive displays by a visiting subcontinental batter on Australian soil. Reddy probably looked the most comfortable both while defending as well as attacking, as he took on the might of the Aussies and managed to top-score in his first outing at this level, that too in the cauldron of the Perth Stadium. He did get some support from the maverick, Rishabh Pant, who decided to react to the tough challenge posed by the Aussies in his own unique way, throwing caution to the wind rather than get bogged down by the dominance of the home team’s hall-of-fame pace trio.
India’s first innings total of 150 might have seemed rather paltry till the time Bumrah decided to create his own impression on the Test match in only his second game in-charge. There might have been numerous other spells of notoriety on Australian soil by visiting fast bowlers but what Bumrah showcased on the opening day of a series, that could well define the legacy of either team, was as exceptional as it was freakish.
There’s leading from the front and then there is Bumrah getting the ball talking and behaving as per his demands, like he had a statement to make with each delivery. There were numerous plays and misses, before Nathan McSweeney fell to an in-swinger that beat his bat and cannoned into his pads. That was followed by him eliminating the often immovable Usman Khawaja with a delivery that angled further away from the left-hander after pitching. With the very next delivery, Bumrah had Steve Smith triple-guessing his movements and getting him trapped dead in front of his stumps. The Indian captain deserved to get at least one more wicket in his dreamy spell, but for Kohli to let slip a straightforward opportunity at second slip. It didn’t matter because Marnus Labuschagne hung around for longer than the rest of his batting colleagues but barely troubled the scorers, or even seemed keen on doing. While India at least provided some resistance in the form of Rahul, Pant and Reddy, there was none from the hosts, as they succumbed to the sustained pressure of the Indian pace attack.
On a day, Test cricket was played on speed, but with the men who actually should be in charge of controlling the tempo, setting the pace for the format.