IND vs AUS: After Mitchell Starc made the headlines with his splendid spell on the opening day of the First Day/Night Test match played against India in this BGT at Adelaide, batters put on a strong resistance to deny Indian pacers a bounce back on Day 1.
This seemed like Australia’s day after their crushing defeat at Perth, as the visitors defeated them by a record-breaking 295 runs under skipper Jasprit Bumrah, who took guard in the absence of the full-time Indian skipper Rohit Sharma.
The very first ball that Mitchell Starc bowled at Adelaide was indicative of what awaits the Indian team; he struck on his very first delivery of the game to dismiss young Indian batting sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Shubman Gill and KL Rahul added some very vital runs for the Indian side as they together built a partnership for the second wicket before Starc came back in his second spell of the game with the pink ball.
Coming back in a total of three different spells in the first two sessions of Day 1, Mitchell Starc picked his career-best figures of 6/48, surpassing his previous best figures of 6/50. He now has 72 wickets with the pink ball in Australia.
Nitish Kumar Reddy dominated with the bat under pressure, as the immensely talented rising star hit some of the most unorthodox shots to Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland for sixes, thus emerging as India’s highest scorer in the first innings.
Trailing by 180 runs, Aussie openers Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja came into bat and batted until Khawaja was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah, caught at slip by Rohit Sharma.
McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne hit on their chest, elbow, and stomach; the two batters took control of the Australian innings, as the youngster alongside Labuschagne put on a big partnership of 62 runs to strengthen Australia’s position on Day 1, as they reduced their trail to 94 runs.
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