As things stand at Indore, India ended the opening day decisively behind, thanks to arrogance in batting and lack of implementation of basics on the field.
Indore: As has frequently been said, and rightly so, that the true nature of any cricket pitch can only be judged after both sides have batted on it. After Day One of the 3rd Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy series, the Holkar Cricket Stadium at Indore one this is for sure – the is one of the most unfriendly first-day pitches seen in recent times. But then, the Australians may well say the same of the previous two tracks. What eventually makes a difference on difficult pitches is how much respect the batters give it, and the bowling. As things stand at Indore, India ended the opening day decisively behind, thanks to arrogance in batting and lack of implementation of basics on the field.
The basics, like bowling the right line and length, and at the correct speed, and staying behind the line when delivering the cricket ball, of course. It also nowadays includes how to deal with television replays, where India is quite a disaster.
Once Ravindra Jadeja snapped up Travis Head, he was unstoppable when it came to appealing for everything. Sadly, skipper Rohit Sharma got caught up in the enthusiasm more than in judgement and lo and behold, India had lost to DRS appeals in next to no time, all thanks to Jadeja’s exuberance.
The biggest beneficiary of these mistakes was Marnus Labuschagne. Not once, but twice. Bowled of a Jadeja no-ball, he was trapped in front soon after but Sharma, left with one TV replay with nine opposition wickets to go, didn’t go up. Predictably, this one was out.
One man who paid suitable respect to the pitch right from the beginning was Usman Khawaja, and he made India pay.
Khawaja never got ahead of himself, never tried any exuberant shots almost throughout his knock and play low, with soft hands. He left the Indian spinners with few options and this knock could well be the difference in the end.
The only person in the Indian set-up who reflected Khawaja’s calmness was Virat Kohli, for the length that he played. That was quite a performance from the former skipper, on a pitch that was a tester from Over One.
Sharma got reprieves, twice, as the umpire was and the Australians were wrong. Two escapes should ensure that any batter makes the rivals pay, something like what Labuschagne did.
But once the spinners came on, the Indian batters’ discomfort against quality slow bowlers on a turning track was once again brutally exposed.
Ironical as it is, India’s skill of playing quality spin has taken a serious hit over the years, and it doesn’t seem to be going in any upward direction.
Sharma jumped out and was stumped. Jadeja got his only DRS right while batting and then promptly played a shot that the slow pitch doesn’t encourage and Shreyas Iyer too snapped at one on a low, turning track and left.
Amidst all of this, the rest too showed their dodginess against good spin as Matthew Kuhnemann used the conditions brilliantly, and Nathan Lyon was always up there.
India may have done enough damage to themselves to be out of the Test already. The Australian wickets showed that you are never completely in on this pitch and staying and carving seems to out of the Indian thought process. There could be some long hours for India in a short Test match.