A survivalist's mindset sees Indian batsmen fail again on the first day of the SCG Test.
Morning session
In Test cricket, when you win the toss as Jasprit Bumrah did, and opt to bat first, you want at least two of your top three to come good. Particularly so when you go into a must-win Test with just four specialist batsmen before the 'keeper and three all-rounders, followed by three quicks -- as lopsided a team as any in recent memory.
At the SCG, on an interesting pitch with a cover of grass offering springy bounce, and under an overcast sky, India lost three of the top four by lunch, including losing both openers before the first drinks break with just 17 on the board.
K L Rahul committed the cricketing equivalent of self-harm: To a Mitchell Starc half volley on leg stump, the opener flicked with a shut bat face, the bat appearing to turn in his hand at point of impact, and picked out Sam Konstas at square leg.
Yashasvi Jaiswal played a couple of fluent strokes but never really looked settled in his 26 ball stay -- a quirk of his fledgling career is that he looks less assured in a first innings than in the second.
Scott Boland, taking over after a three-over burst from Pat Cummins, hit the full length around middle and leg and made the ball lift and bounce towards off forcing Jaiswal to play at it.
At point of contact, he was neither forward nor fully back, his feet and body shaped one way and his hands another as the trajectory turned him inside out; the edge on the high part of the bat gave debutant Beau Webster an opportunity to showcase his bucket-like hands at third slip (17/2 India).
Boland came within a toucher of making it two in two. A short, lifting delivery just outside off saw Kohli pushing; the edge flew to first slip where Smith dived to get his hand to the ball. Feeling it go out of his control, Smith flipped it up over second slip and into the hands of third.
The umpires reviewed, and Third Umpire Joel Wilson reprieved the batsman on the basis of visual evidence that suggested the ball just may have touched the ground.
From Smith's point of view, he had the ball under control, with enough of a finger under it to be able to flick it to his catching partner. From the umpire's point of view, the ball appeared to have touched the grass just before Smith flicked it up. Unable to conclude that the catch was clean, he gave the decision to the batsman.
On balance, I'm glad the call went the way it did -- this series has already had enough controversies without an indeterminate first-baller for Kohli.
Shubman Gill, back at number three, and Kohli had to dig deep as the three frontline quicks bowled short, probing spells.
The Aussies went with conventional fields for Gill; for Kohli, they left the covers wide open, with acres of space between point and mid off, and had three slips and two gullies for the edge off the expansive drive. The Indian number four visibly restrained his impulses to ride through a testing period.
Gill, in earlier outings, has looked fluid from the get go, his problem being lapses in concentration that saw him getting out to gimme balls. Here, he looked way below peak form. Notably, when the ball is pitched up, he has tended in this innings to fall over, playing the wrong line and opening up his pads to the bowler.
Gill managed to see off 63 deliveries -- only to get out on the stroke of lunch thanks to a bad lapse of concentration.
To Nathan Lyon, Gill -- to, of all things, the last ball before lunch -- inexplicably danced down the track to try and turn the ball to leg for, at best, a single. With Lyon getting bounce off the springy surface, all that Gill managed was an outer edge through to slip.
India went in to lunch precariously poised, at 57/3, with Kohli on a patient 12 off 48 balls and Rishabh Pant to join him after the break.
I suspect the pitch will come in for considerable discussion as this game goes on. There is a substantial grass covering -- very unlike the norm in Sydney -- providing springy tennis ball bounce. What is interesting is the striations visible under the grass which could, given sufficient sun, open out into cracks by days three and four.
Beau Webster made his debut, in place of Mitchell Marsh, and the difference showed as early as the second hour. Marsh, in the four Tests he played, bowled almost as an afterthought. Webster, though, got a go as early as the second over.
Tallest of the Aussie pacers, Webster hits the deck from a high arm; his pace -- mid 120s -- is almost identical to that of Marsh, but thanks to that high release he just seems to get ball to bat a bit quicker; he also tends to bowl more at the stumps than through the channel.
Early days, but indications are he can take a lot of the load off Cummins and Starc as this game progresses, and allow the frontline bowlers to bowl in short, sharp spells.
PostScript
This series has seen one high-profile exit midway through, and now a higher-profile abdication at the tail end, with Rohit Sharma falling on his own sword for the greater good, and Bumrah taking back the captain's armband he had worn last in Perth.
Sharma's returns in the three Tests after his return to the side from paternity leave -- 3, 6, 10, 3, and 9 -- made it inevitable. And permanent? Sharma will be 38 by the time India plays its next Test series in June in England.
It's hard to see him making that squad -- and so a batsman who announced himself with a match-winning 177 (and a player of the match) on debut back in November 2013 against the West Indies, and who led the white ball team to a world title earlier last year, will likely walk off into the sunset with no fanfare.
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Post-lunch session
In cricket, quality batsmen know the value of the 'opposing shot'.
Basically, it refers to the ability to play two distinctly different shots to the same line and length. For instance, to a length ball from a spinner on off and middle, if you can play both the sweep and the off drive (the inside out cover drive is a bonus), it is that much harder to set a field.
To the line on length of just back of, on a fourth stump line, that lack of opposing shots -- a square drive, or cut, for instance -- has been Kohli's weakness throughout his career.
In his pomp, when he seeing the ball early and moving well, it wasn't a problem -- his cover drives, which he could play in an arc spanning just to the right of point all the way to wide extra cover, was all he needed to counter that line.
Of late, though, he is visibly picking the line and length later; the shot that defined him at his peak has become increasingly fraught with risk, and in consequence, his lack of an alternate to the cover drive -- as, for instance, a horizontal bat shot to that line -- has meant that bowlers are able to consistently target him in the channel with impunity.
Kohli's innings here was an exercise in survival, pure and simple. Barring a firm push down the ground, there was no stroke of conviction in his 48-ball tenure in the morning session that produced 12 runs. Post lunch was a continuation of that survivalist mindset. And this is where Scott Boland deserves a mention.
The third seamer's position has been the key differentiator between the two sides. India's third seamer has been largely ineffective; on the other hand, Boland has ensured that Australia hasn't missed Josh Hazelwood.
Boland's bowling to Kohli is particularly noteworthy, as an object lesson in how to work out a batsman. Before this innings, Boland had taken Kohli out three times, in near-identical fashion. And here, he did it again.
Kohli in this innings opted for a middle stump guard, with a trigger movement that saw his front foot come forward into line of off, the toe pointing to mid-off. This allowed him to play with a straighter bat face.
Watching Boland work that puzzle out was a pleasure. The tall quick first attacked the stumps with a leg slip in place, looking to see if he could get Kohli either falling over in defense, exposing the pads, or flicking uppishly.
He then went back to Plan A, targeting the batsman through the channel. With the covers open to invite the drive, Boland tried back of length around fifth stump; Kohli left with an almost religious punctiliousness.
Boland then increased his length by a half foot, and brought his line tighter towards the fourth stump -- and Kohli fell, fending one off the sticker of his bat to Beau Webster at third slip, as much a victim to intelligent bowling as towards the batsman's siege mentality and overly defensive outlook (Kohli 17 off 69, India 72/4).
In the space of two-and-a-half hours, all of India's specialist batsmen were back in the hut -- and Ravindra Jadeja nearly made that five, playing a flashing drive at Boland that took the edge only for the normally reliable Steve Smith to make a meal of the belly-high chance at second slip. (Jadeja 3 off 8 at that point and India 76/4).
Boland's analysis, after an extended post-lunch spell, read 12-6-15-2 -- and it could so easily have been three if Smith, the safest slip catcher in the Aussie ranks, hadn't had a rare fumble. He doesn't get the notice or the opportunities he deserves, but Boland would be a shoo-in in almost any other Test lineup than Australia's.
The early passages of Rishabh Pant's innings was painful to watch. After some calculated plants in the media about Gautam Gambhir having stern words for the Indian batsmen in the wake of defeat in the fourth Test, Gambhir at the pre-match press conference said the reports were not true, and that all that happened was some 'honest words'.
Wonder what those 'honest words' were, to Pant. Bat responsibly? Rein in your natural style of play? Bat against type?
Pant's USP is his ability to turn pressure back on the bowling unit. Here, though, there was about his play a feeling that the flack he had received for the nature of previous dismissals was preying on his mind. Even to deliveries that he would in better circumstances have taken for runs, he played well within himself -- and when a normally attacking batsman goes into a shell, it makes for unpleasant viewing.
He copped a rap on his forearm; a couple of blows in the belly; one in the groin; Starc smacked him on the helmet with the sort of bouncer that in better times would have seen the batsman ramping... it was a demonstration of what happens when an aggressive strokeplayer is bullied into a defensive frame of mind, and it was very distressing to watch.
It's something I've never understood -- batsmen making elementary errors, pushing outside off, flicking in the air, getting into a tangle around the fourth stump, get away with a passing mention.
But an aggressive batsman getting out playing the same sort of shots that have brought success in the past (Pant, FWIW, averages a tick over 149 at the SCG) becomes the target for pejorative, and seemingly endless, commentary -- even as he walked to the wicket today, the broadcasters were showing his earlier 'irresponsibility'.
Pant 'looks a bit confused', Harsha Bhogle said on commentary. Yeah, well, if the commentariat bangs on about irresponsibility, and you get some 'honest words' from your coach, wouldn't you be? (Note that even as late as last night, there was considerable speculation that Pant would be dumped and Dhruv Jurel would take over.)
The Kohli dismissal seemed to have further dampened Pant's normally ebullient approach to batting. He was 10 off 20 when Kohli fell; the next 31 balls he faced produced a mere five scratchy runs before he finally climbed into width offered by Starc to get a four to point.
The early let off had a dampening effect on Jadeja as well. With both batsmen becalmed, the game in the second session went nowhere for the batting side.
More to the point, with Pant and Jadeja both intent on survival, the Aussie bowlers had the luxury of keeping the field tight even with a ball 40-plus overs old, and to hold their lines and preferred lengths with impunity.
What happens when this happens is that batting is reduced to your waiting for the one delivery that has your name on it.
As for example the 46th over, when Beau Webster found Jadeja's edge on a nothing drive to a ball of fuller length outside off. The edge flew hard to Nathan Lyon at gully; the fielder dived, got his hand to it, but couldn't hold on (Jadeja 6 off 39 at that point).
And while you are on that suicide watch, the score is static, and you are falling behind in the game with every passing over.
The same over produced a glimpse of the other Rishabh Pant, though, when he waltzed down to Webster and lofted him clean and hard back over the bowler's head for a towering six.
India's 100 came up with a Jadeja on drive for four off Lyon -- in 48 overs, at a run rate of 2.08. At that point, the partnership for the fifth wicket had realised 28 runs (18 of them with three fours and one six, underlining the inability of the batsmen to turn the strike over) -- off a whopping 99 deliveries, this despite two let-offs for Jadeja.
India went in to tea at at 107/4 in 50 overs, with Pant on 32 (80 balls) and Jadeja on 11 off 50. And I hope some 'honest words' are spoken to the two batsmen during the break. Something on the lines of 'Guys, it's okay -- more storied batsmen got nowhere playing the survival game; play your own game, and let the chips fall where they may, because this method right here is getting us nothing but grief.'
Post-tea session
What more can you say about Scott Boland? For the second successive session, the tall third seamer struck -- and it was the manner of the two wickets he took, in the 57th over of the Indian innings, that was remarkable.
The ball was old and softer; his bowling mates were finding that the bounce had perceptibly ebbed -- and yet Boland repeatedly got the ball to bounce higher than expected. He did that to Kohli in the second session; here, post tea, he produced a delivery that lifted more than you would anticipate off that back-of-good length.
The length was right for the pull but the bounce defeated Pant, who holed out to mid on after facing 97 balls, scoring 40 runs, and copping 12 body blows in course of a 48-run partnership for the 5th wicket off 151 balls. That he top-scored -- in fact, scored more than Jaiswal, Rahul and Gill put together -- will not hamper more cries of 'irresponsibility', I'd imagine.
Nitish Reddy contributed to his own dismissal. It appeared that he had been watching the way the ball was moving off the seam for Boland. To the very first ball he faced, Reddy walked forward to negate the swing; Boland again made the ball kick on a line just outside off, and Reddy nicked to Smith at third slip for a first-baller.
Washington Sundar survived the hat-trick ball, which nearly but not quite found his outside edge off the fuller length outside off. At that point, Boland's analysis read an incredible 16-7-19-4. Reddy's wicket was his 50th in Tests, at an average of just 18.6 -- crucially, he has only gotten to play 13 Tests since his Test debut in 2021 against England (when he famously took 6 for 7 on debut).
The first ten overs after tea produced 14 runs for two wickets -- and underlined that survival alone does not help the team's cause.
Jadeja, marginally more proactive after tea, fell to a patented Starc dismissal -- fuller length delivery on leg stump straightening to middle, defeating the batsman's attempt to swing to leg and hitting the pad in front of middle stump.
The softer ball took the bounce out of the equation, Hawkeye showed the ball hitting the middle of middle. Worth pointing out, too, that Jadeja -- normally fluent off his pads -- had his feet in a tangle here, and the bat had to come a long way around the front pad, always a danger against a bowler of Starc's pace. (Jadeja 26 off 95; India 134/7).
India's crucial failure in this innings has been the inability to put together partnerships. Other than the 40 (106 balls) between Kohli and Gill, which was brought to an end by Gill's brain fade on the stroke of lunch, and 49 (151 balls) between Jadeja and Pant), no partnership crossed the 15-run mark, and that will hurt a side that opted to bat first on winning the toss.
With just the tail for company, Sundar -- supposedly in the side for his batting -- came in at number nine, and finally, eschewed the survivalist mode adopted by his betters and went for his shots.
He got three fours for his trouble, before Cummins bowled one down leg, caught a faint tickle off the glove, and the on-field decision of not out was overthrown on review. (India 148/8, Sundar 14 off 17; he was 0/13 when Jadeja got out).
This was one of those instances where the evidence, both visual and aural, were indeterminate -- Sundar looked unhappy, and he had some reason to be. The problem with such dismissals is that the glove, being softer than the bat, does not give a clear spike on contact, bringing a lot of guesswork and extrapolation to a third umpire's call.
The four top order batsmen contributed 41 runs; the four all-rounders including the wicket-keeper batsman contributed 80. In sum, neither half worked for India.
Prasidh Krishna and Jasprit Bumrah then went against the prescribed playbook, swinging away at everything and finally forcing Cummins to spread the field out. The two put on 20 off 14 balls thanks largely to Bumrah slamming Starc for a four and Boland for two more. It was the third highest partnership of the innings.
Krishna holed out to Konstas at deep backward square leg; Siraj took a blow on the jaw off Boland, and kept swinging away but managed little other than create a dust storm around the batting crease. Bumrah swiped a six off Cummins, but holed out next ball for a rough and ready 22 (17 balls) to end the Indian innings on 185, poor returns for batting first.
The 26 balls the last wicket pair used up meant that Australia had a tricky period of about 15 minutes to negotiate before stumps.
Sam Konstas got things under way by dancing down at Bumrah's first ball of the innings, and smearing it through wide midwicket to get things going with a four. Bumrah then smacked Usman Khawaja on the fingers; the resulting running repairs took some time off the little the Indians had to bowl.
Off the last ball of the day, Bumrah found Khawaja's edge to second slip, to have Australia going in to stumps on 9/1, setting up what should be an electric second morning in a series that is a dramatist's dream.
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