India ahead on Day1 as bowlers dominated at Perth

India staged strong comeback on Day 1 in Perth (PC: Cricket Australia)

It was the perfect start to the Border-Gavaskar series 2024-25 where bowlers dominated Day one at Perth stadium since as many as 17 wickets were fallen. Jasprit Bumrah, who is leading Indian team in the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and made a bold decision to bat first on the pitch where bowlers had a lot to say. Australian bowlers were right on the money from the start and made life difficult for the Indian batters as they gave nothing away. Yashaswi Jaiswal, who was playing his first match on Australian soil was the first batsman to get out on duck. He was picked up by Mitchell Stark who was in rhythm from the start. Padikkal followed soon and was dismissed for duck by Hazlewood who later picked all important wicket of Virat Kohli for just 5 runs. KL Rahul looked solid for his 26 runs only to get out in a controversial manner. He was not given out on the bowling of Stark and hence Pat Cummins went up for the review and the decision was overturned to out without definite evidence. India was reduced to 51/4 at lunch. Dhruv Jurel went soon after lunch followed by Washington Sunder who was selected over Ravichandran Ashwin. India was reeling at 73/6 when Rishabh Pant and debutant Nitish Reddy joined hands and played positive shots and showed a bit character to take India past 100 run mark. Both batsmen stitched 48 run crucial partnership to give India some total to fight with. Nitish Reddy looked confident in his first outing for India in tests and scored crucial 41 runs and Pant scored 37 runs in tough conditions. India was eventually bowled out for 150 runs. Josh Hazlewood was pick of the bowlers for Australia as he picked 4 wickets whereas Stark, Cummins and Mitch Marsh picked 2 wickets each.

Indian bowlers in reply were too hot to handle for Australia as Indian skipper for this match Jasprit Bumrah picked 3 quick wickets including an all-important wicket of Steve Smith who was dismissed for 0. However, he could have had Virat Kohli grabbed the catch of Marnus Labuschagne. However, debutant Harshit Rana got his first wicket of career by cleaning up Travis head’s off stump. Siraj then got Mitch Marsh in the slips and then ended Labuschagne’s struggle by trapping him in front of wickets. Bumrah then picked his counterpart Pat Cummins behind the wicket and left Australia lot to ponder at 59/7.

It is fair to say that India at the end of day’s play are in commanding position but that can change if they didn’t wrap up Australian innings soon as scoring runs on this wicket is hard. Wicket will get faster as the day will pass so any lead will help Indian team to further strengthen their grip over Australia.

Day 2 of First test will decide as which team is going to take a lead in this 5-matchseries. First session will be crucial for both the teams. India will look to take a healthy lead despite being wrapped up for 150 runs whereas Australia will look to reduce the deficit as much as possible. It will be interesting day 2 where tough cricket will be surely on display by both teams.

India - the Cornered tigers before the start of Border Gavaskar Trophy

 

Border-Gavaskar trophy to kick off from November 22, 2024

The tiger seems to roar back stronger than ever when he has been pushed to corner, or we can say if he takes a step back or has been wounded hard. Team India seems to be in a same position where they are wounded after losing 3-0 to New Zealand in home tests which was highly unexpected. This called for a deep introspection and the meeting was held between BCCI and Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir along with Rohit Sharma.  No doubt that not only Indian fans were disappointed but entire Indian cricket took a serious hit demanding clarification as to what went wrong that strong going Team India surrendered series loss to New Zealand in tests that too after not losing home series for 12 long years looking invincible. It's not that Team is never allowed to lose a series, but it is the matching of Teams and individual to individual matchups. Taking nothing away from New Zealand, but even the mighty Aussies were not able to break the Indian fort and New Zealand were coming after losing against Sri Lanka on their home soil. It is the magnitude by which Team India surrendered the series which called for deep introspection.

Team India however have proved in the past by coming back stronger after a setback and who can forget the setback India faced in the first match of Border-Gavaskar series 2020-21 where they were bundled out for 36 in a day night clash in Adelaide. After losing the first match, Team India’s comeback chances looked slim specially when Virat Kohli, then Indian captain was out of the remaining matches of the series due to birth of his first child. But little did anyone knew at that time that not only team India will level the series but will eventually win the series 2-1 scripting their famous comeback led by Ajinkya Rahane who took after in the absence of Virat Kohli.

Team India is again in the same spot after a recent series loss against New Zealand and the injury scare ahead of the beginning of the all-important BGT series where WTC points are also on the stake. Rohit Sharma might not play the first test at Perth and the reports are suggesting that Shubman Gill might also miss the opening test because of his finger injury where his participation will only be clear if he has sustained fracture or not. KL Rahul also left the training session after sustaining injury scare but he was seen again in the net session day after. These all are not a good sign for Indian fans and Team India but again India have always found the way to make a strong comeback like the cornered tigers. They will not only hope for the seniors to deliver but will also hope youngsters to replicate the heroics of Shardul Thakur and Washington Sunder whereas the latter will travel this time too on Australian soil. In the absence of regular skipper Rohit Sharma Jasprit Bumrah reportedly will lead Team India who doesn't have much experience in captaincy, but the fire will be there for sure.

The odds are against Team India unlike the last two tours to Australia but if any team who can visit and give Australia run for their money, its Team India and they only have to look ahead and believe in their Armory and skillset. Team India must take one match at a time and have to look away what needs to be done for reaching WTC finals. As legendary Sunil Gavaskar said that forget WTC and concentrate on the third consecutive BGT trophy which Indian fans will cherish happily.

The wars of words have started between Indian and Aussies legends but it’s the start which will define the course of the series and team India will look to hunt first against all the odds which is not difficult if they stick to basics and not look far ahead.