Adelaide: ‘You’re bowling too slow,’ Yashasvi Jaiswal had told Mitchell Starc during the second innings of the Perth Test. The 22-year-old was in the middle of what might, in the times to come, be considered as a career-defining innings. But he’ll soon learn that some things are best left unsaid for they have a way of coming back and biting you.
When asked about the statement a day before the second Test at Adelaide, Starc played it down: “I don’t say too much to people these days. Maybe back in the day. Nah, I just get on with it.”
But, on evidence of what we saw on Day 1, a Starc looking to get on with things is bad news for the opposition. He started off by trapping Jaiswal leg before wicket with the first ball of the match. The ball pitched in line with the leg stump and then swung in towards the stumps. There was no more talk from the youngster. No need for a review either.
“He had a good Test match last week. So (it was) nice to get him early, and then we’ll have to work on him in the second innings, I guess,” Starc said after close of play. “It was a very good first day for us with the ball. I think after that first hour there, we were pretty bang on, so it was a nice way to start the Test (and) a nice day one for us overall.”
By the time, Starc was done, he had career-best figures of 14.1-2-48-6 and India were bowled out for 180. In reply, Australia made their way to 86/1 at close of play.
To be fair, India seemed to recover pretty well after losing a wicket off the first ball. KL Rahul and Shubman Gill built a solid partnership that got India past the new ball. Their 69-run stand eventually ended when some extra bounce from Starc got the edge of Rahul’s bat. The batters had looked comfortable up to that point.
And no one could have predicted the 15 minutes of carnage that followed. Virat Kohli (7 runs), Gill (31) and Rohit Sharma (3) were back in the hut in quick succession as India found that half their side was in the dressing room with just 87 on the board.
It got worse when Pat Cummins, who had looked pretty ordinary up to that point, got one to climb on Pant (21). The left-hander could only fend at it and the easy catch reduced India to 109/6. Perth first innings flashbacks in more ways than one.
Nitish Reddy provided some resistance with an enterprising 42 to push India’s total to 180. Fittingly, the last wicket was taken by Starc. The left-armer has always been a rhythm bowler and when he gets the ball to move, as he did on Friday, he can pretty much be unplayable.
Starc is only the second bowler in Test history to take a wicket off the first ball of the match on three occasions — versus India on Friday, versus England in Brisbane 2021 and versus Sri Lanka in Galle 2016. Pedro Collins of West Indies is the only other bowler to achieve the feat.
After the day’s play, India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate said he felt Starc used the conditions on offer the best.
“I think Ashwin’s dismissal was a very good example of why Starc’s so effective with the pink ball. He’s somebody who presents the seam nicely and he has obviously used that other ball very well in setting up batters, but I thought Australia set us up nicely. And when the ball swings back to a certain degree, a lesser degree, the batters can generally figure it out, but when you’re guessing on both sides, it makes him far more effective.”
Up to this point, the game was very much in line with what we saw at Perth in the first innings. India put up a middling total and Bumrah had the ball in hand for the final session.
But this is where the script deviated. There were a fair number of plays and misses but the Aussies managed to blunt Bumrah’s edge a bit. Usman Khawaja made just 13 but he lasted 35 balls and that allowed Nathan McSweeney (38) to gain some confidence as well.
Marnus Labuschagne took his time to make his way to 20 but the key part was how India seemed a little frazzled towards the end. Mohammed Siraj seemed to be losing it a bit, Gill made a horrible misfield and generally they were starting to look a little listless by close. In that sense, the day ended at the right time because it allows them to go back to the dressing room and figure if there is anything they need to change.
