Old firm dominate Indians batting in Test tour opener

A hundred to Ajinkya Rahane and another patiently defiant half-century from Cheteshwar Pujara provided timely reminders that India's batting prowess extends well beyond skipper Virat Kohli who will miss much of the upcoming four-Test Vodafone Series against Australia.

As was the case when India secured their first Test series triumph in Australia two summers ago, Kohli has dominated headlines heading into the campaign that begins with a day-night fixture at Adelaide Oval on December 17.

But after the Indians – as the tourists chose to call themselves with Kohli and others involved in the Dettol T20I Series elsewhere in Sydney this evening – found early difficulty against Australia A's seamers at Drummoyne Oval, the tourists true batting strength was revealed.

Rahane might have under-performed in that 2018-19 campaign with 217 runs at 31, but he produced a flawless 228-ball innings that lifted the Indians to 8-237 at the close of day one having been reduced to 2-0 in the third over.

The Indians' captain, who is expected to assume the Test leadership when Kohli returns home after the first Test, was involved in a solid 66-run stand with Pujara (54 from 140 balls) that proved the backbone of the innings that was listing at 3-40 after the tourists chose to bat first.

After a mini-collapse that followed Pujara's departure – smartly caught at leg gully by Marcus Harris from a canny plan executed by James Pattinson (3-58) – Rahane found support from bowlers Kuldeep Yadav (15) and Umesh Yadav (24) to push the total towards 250 on a pitch that offered bounce and occasional seam movement for the quicks.

In addition to essential long-form practice ahead of the Test Series beginning in less than a fortnight, the three-day game at picturesque Drummoyne carried an even greater instructive value.

From India's perspective, it gave a chance to trial the middle-order batting line-up the tourists might be compelled to employ for the final three Tests, once skipper Virat Kohli has departed the country to be with wife Anushka Sharma as she gives birth to the couple's first child.

For Australia, it provided an opportunity to trial the likely opening pair for the first Test, with Burns and Pucovski tipped to bat together at the top of the order for the first time in their respectively productive careers.

The crowd that set up deck chairs on the hill behind the ground, unable to enter the venue due to COVID-19 restrictions in place for the match, might have been hoping to see the latter and were initially afforded fleeting glimpses of the former.

The Indians opening pair, Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, survived a combined total nine deliveries and added nothing to their team's aggregate.

Shaw can lay claim to being India's incumbent Test opener, having paired with Mayank Agarwal in the nation's most-recent campaign against New Zealand last February prior to the global pandemic reconfiguring world sport.

But he did nothing to increase his grip on the job as he edged the eighth ball he faced to Australia's Test skipper, Tim Paine.

It was not so much Shaw's failure to score as the manner of his demise that might have prompted concern within the Indians' dressing room – an angled bat away from his body to combat a delivery that bounced appreciably and seamed slightly away.

Given that Gill, who was part of India's winning outfit in the third match of the Dettol ODI Series in Canberra but has yet to play a Test, was out to the first ball he faced it represented a forgettable start to the team's first-class tour.

However, from 2-0 in the third over the reliable red-ball exponents dropped anchor as the wind whipped up from the neighbouring Parramatta River to try and steer India to calmer waters.

Hanuma Vihari, who is tipped to fill Kohli's berth at number three when the India captain quits camp after the Adelaide Test, showed a similar watchfulness to Pujara at the outset of his innings.

Having scored a solitary single from the first 22 deliveries he faced, Vihari appeared to twist his left knee as he knocked a ball from Michael Neser to short leg and turned awkwardly to regain his crease as he lurched forward.

Upon resuming after treatment, the 27-year-old – who batted at number six behind Rahane in New Zealand – found greater fluency with his strokes but was adjudged lbw to Jackson Bird when trying to work a full delivery off pads.

At 3-40 shortly after drinks on the first day, it became Pujara and Rahane's mission to salvage the innings as they have done so reliably in many a Test match of the recent past.

As the wind increased and the early life was slowly sucked from the pitch, the greatest threat seemed to come from Australia's allrounder-in%E2%80%94waiting Cameron Green who bowled several short spells that were decidedly sharp.

The first ball of the 21-year-old's second over climbed from a length and seamed past the edge of Pujara's usually impassable blade before it thudded into Paine's gloves, with the Test skipper throwing back in delighted surprise as he clasped the ball above his head.

The thunderbolt drew a quizzical look from the implacable Pujara, and a similar response from Rahane early in Green's second spell when he produced a replica of that delivery that yielded a half-hearted appeal from the bowler along with fielders behind the stump.

In keeping with his recovery program after back problems, the Test squad member sent down only eight overs today – one spell into the wind and the second down breeze – and finished with 0-9.

Come the drinks break at the day's mid-point, the Indians had laboured to 3-88 after Pujara (36no from 115 balls) and Rahane (10no from 33) had added just 48 runs in the more than 22 overs since joining forces.

At one stage, Pujara faced 27 deliveries across a span of 10 overs without scoring a run until he stole a single courtesy of an inside edge that deflected from his pad.

The scorebook shows he reached his half-century with a stroke off Pattinson's bowling that brought him three runs, but closer examination of his batting chart reveals two of those came via overthrows from 12th man Harry Conway's over-enthusiastic hurl at the bowler's end.

As Australia learned during the previous Test series against India, their batting can wobble once Pujara is excised and that was the case today as Widdhiman Saha (0) and Ravi Ashwin (5) quickly followed their batting mainstay back to the pavilion as the Indians lost 3-12 in less than six overs.

However, it then became Rahane's turn to remind Paine and his teammates, alongside him in the field or watching via cricket.com.au's live stream, that India's hopes of once more achieving batting dominance in Australia will not come and go with Kohli.

Squads

Australia A (first game): Joe Burns, Will Pucovski, Marcus Harris, Travis Head (c), Cameron Green, Nic Maddinson, Tim Paine (wk), Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird, Mark Steketee, Harry Conway, Will Sutherland

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

India Test squad not involved in the T20s: Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, 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