Usman Khawaja took an absolute peach to dismiss Virat Kohli in the first Test at Adelaide. (Source: AP)Virat Kohli’s stupendous batting record at Adelaide was blemished a touch by Usman Khawaja on the opening day of the first Test against Australia. The wicket, off Pat Cummins, allowed him to dismiss Kohli for a second time in four balls – spread across a year and a half. The previous dismissal came on Australia’s tour of India in Ranchi and it continued to Adelaide with India touring Australia.
Incredible from @Uz_Khawaja! #AUSvIND | @bet365_aus pic.twitter.com/eLgBLnQssM
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 6, 2018
Coming in to bat soon after toss, with KL Rahul and Murali Vijay falling cheaply, Kohli didn’t do much to help India’s scorecard along but the credit for his dismissal should fall entirely on Khawaja stationed at gully. In the 11th over of the inning, Cummins’ full and angling delivery had Kohli going for the drive. The shot, played with hard hands, went flying and would have beaten Khawaja and the entire slip cordon but for the Aussie sticking out his left hand to take an absolute stunner before being engulfed by his teammates. The wicket put India in trouble at 19/3.
Earlier, Kohli won the toss and decided to bat in Adelaide. At the toss, he said, “We will bat first, looks like a nice hard wicket with a nice covering of grass. Runs on the board will be handy.”
“Evey tour is an opportunity, it’s a difficult challenge in Australia. We are looking forward to a challenging series, I love playing here in Adelaide, the wicket is good and the stadium is great. Rohit Sharma will bat at six, he can bat well with tail, has the shots on these kind of wickets.”
Australia captain Tim Paine stated his team, too, would have preferred to bat. “We would have batted as well, some damp spots and we will look to make the best of that. Nice to start in Adelaide, we will look to do our best”.
“We think 3 pacers and Nathan will do the job, they are pretty fresh and we have a all-round attack. We expect the batsmen to stand-up, we have good players who have done well domestically over the past five-six years,” he said at the toss.
