Aussies shine under lights as India rue Kohli run-out

If the handover of India's Test captaincy happens as bumpily as tonight's calamitous mix-up between incumbent skipper Virat Kohli and his deputy Ajinkya Rahane, Australia's hopes of wresting back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy might have sharply increased.

Playing his sole Test of the four-match Vodafone Series before he returns home for the birth of his first child, Kohli seemed destined for a century having steadied his team after a wobbly start until he fell victim to his vice-captain's indecision.

Rahane's emphatic call of 'yes, yeah, yeah' having pushed a delivery from Nathan Lyon firmly to mid-off was followed by a more beseeching cry of 'no, no, no' which left Kohli stranded mid-pitch and on 74 as Josh Hazlewood's neat throw saw Lyon complete the run-out.

It was a not dissimilar circumstance, if not quite as dramatic a moment, to the final frantic minutes of last year's Ashes Test at Headingley where Lyon fumbled the chance to complete an Australia win.

This time, the spinner coolly took the ball in the clutch moment as Kohli looked at his partner in disbelief and Rahane hung his head in despair, knowing the hard work he and Kohli had undertaken (along with Cheteshwar Pujara before them) to strengthen India's position.

Any apology forthcoming could have been delivered personally four overs later when Rahane was pinned lbw by Mitchell Starc having added just one more run to his score, though whether the incident had rattled his concentration only Rahane will know.

What was undeniable was the timing of the mishap could hardly have been worse, coming in the final hour of the day-night Test when batting is notoriously hardest and with the second new ball – known to misbehave under floodlights – just three overs away.

True to type, the confluence of those events saw India lose 3-18 to end the opening day 6-233 after their stoic and stellar middle-order had withstood a day of disciplined Australia team bowling.

Led by Starc, whose new-ball strikes either end of the day were decisive, the seamers in concert with Lyon gave away nothing and if not for numerous near misses and catches narrowly evading fielders, the home team might have found themselves batting in the final hour.

As it is, new opening pair Joe Burns and Matthew Wade will have learned much from Pujara, Kohli and Rahane about batting on a pitch that yielded sufficient seam movement and sometimes sluggish bounce to make stroke play a difficult proposition.

Even by Pujara's measured pace, his 159-ball innings that contained not a solitary boundary in the first 147 deliveries he faced was a study in inertia.

But that reflected the circumstances in which he came to the wicket – just two balls into the innings – and the quality of the bowling he faced.

He and Kohli fashioned a 68-run stand for the third wicket that occupied more than 30 overs, although Kohli might have been dismissed for 16 had his rival skipper Tim Paine called for a video review.

The potentially pivotal moment came at the end of Lyon's second over when Kohli attempted to flick a big-spinning delivery on the leg side.

Paine took the ball moving smartly to his left and offered a perfunctory appeal, with Wade (fielding at bat-pad) telling his captain he heard a noise as ball passed bat.

Paine deliberated with Wade and Lyon but opted not to invoke the DRS protocols, which subsequently showed a slight 'hot spot' on Kohli's batting glove that might have been sufficient to overturn umpire Bruce Oxenford's not-out verdict.

It came at a time that Kohli was showing his first signs of seizing the initiative, having advanced at Lyon earlier in that over and lifting him over long-on to the boundary.

That was followed by a trademark flick through mid-wicket off Starc for another four, a stroke that seemed to jolt Pujara into action as he peeled off consecutive boundaries from Lyon to move within sight of a half-century.

But it was a successful DRS challenge that brought Australia the breakthrough, a decision that might have been spurred by Pujara's apparent concession that he was out.

Having pushed forward to a ball from Lyon that bounced and spun sharply, Pujara took a couple of steps towards the pavilion as Marnus Labuschagne sprung forward from leg slip to claim a catch only to stop when he realised Oxenford was not inclined to raise his finger.

Paine's call for review revealed a sizeable inside edge, and the removal of the batter whose batting wore down Australia's bowlers when the teams last met meant the current captain and his anointed successor loomed as India's best hope of a big total.

 

Kohli's innate competitiveness ensures he wants to be in the game, influencing its course, whether his team is batting or fielding.

And it seemed he might be needed in the middle soon after nominating to bat at the coin toss, when rookie opener Prithvi Shaw came and went without adding a run to the sizeable reputation that preceded him to Australia.

Shaw has his critics among India's passionate cricket fans, largely those who see his aggressive temperament and attacking technique as not a snug fit with the historical definition of Test match openers.

But India's selectors see the 21-year-old as someone who, in the manner of former India opener Virender Sehwag or injured Australia batter David Warner, can set or alter the course of a match in an hour or less of blazing batting.

That outcome depends on Shaw surviving the brand-new ball, which he failed to manage today when Starc swung the day's second delivery back into the right-hander and through the yawning gap between bat and pad, finding sufficient inside edge to rattle leg stump.

Australia's pre-match planning for Pujara would surely have begun with 'get him in early while the ball's swinging', but they could scarcely have hoped their chance would come with just four minutes of game time elapsed.

The same dot point would have appeared alongside Kohli's name on the strategy sheet, so when Mayank Agarwal (17) fell in similar circumstances to his opening partner, Australia had established a clear advantage.

Both openers had perished after pushing hard at the ball, bats out in front of their bodies which is a fraught approach on Australia pitches where bounce is exaggerated and reaction times crucial.

But from the moment Pujara arrived in his now familiar guise – hunched over his bat, oblivious to the opening-over chaos – the mastery of India's middle-order batting strength was apparent.

The second ball Pujara received from Starc was angled across the right-hander and took the edge of his usually broad blade, but the 32-year-old dropped his hands and played sufficiently late for the ball to pitch just in front of 'keeper Paine as he flung himself to his right.

If it provided a scare, it was imperceptible as the hero of India's historic Border-Gavaskar Trophy series win in Australia two summers ago showed no shift in demeanour and, rather, dug deeper into his vast reserves of concentration.

Offered nothing from relentlessly accurate Australia bowling – including three consecutive maiden overs from Pat Cummins to Pujara – the tension finally snapped.

Cummins' first delivery to Agarwal, who had become marooned at the non-striker's end and dealing with Starc, found its way through the opener's not-quite-watertight defence to bring Kohli to the crease to wild applause, even from a reduced day one crowd.

It was a similarly enthusiastic response to that which had erupted two overs earlier, as debutant Cameron Green removed his freshly minted Baggy Green cap and began preparing for his first over as a Test bowler.

But no sooner had the 21-year-old completed his first few limbering exercises than Cummins made him aware the skipper's instruction might have been misinterpreted, and it was the vice-captain who was to continue.

When Green was given the nod half an hour later, the only demonstrable show of first-game nerves was overstepping with his first delivery, perhaps the result of adrenaline coursing through his 199cm frame.

As the youngest genuine allrounder to debut for Australia in Tests since Graeme 'Beatle' Watson, who was also 21 when he played the first of his five Tests in 1966, Green slotted into an already purring Australia attack like a hardened veteran.

His first seven overs yielded just 14 runs as India maintained their similar scoring rate of barely two runs an over for the daylight sessions, and he was brought back into the attack immediately after the pivotal run-out of Kohli.

Australia XI: Joe Burns, Matthew Wade, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Tim Paine (c & wk), Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

India XI: Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Virat Kohli (c) (first Test only), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj

First Test: December 17-21, Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (day-night)

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT