PERTH: Indian new opening pair KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal played an excellent knock, helping to put the touring side in the driving seat against Australia in the first test in Perth on Saturday.
Rahul finished unbeaten on 62, while Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 90 not out, as India reached 172 without loss, leading by 218 over Australia to take control of the game at stumps on Day 2.
Earlier, Australia added only 37 runs on the second day of the first test. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood’s ended right at the stroke of Lunch with Harshit Rana dismissing the former. Starc grinded it out for 112 balls and scored 26 runs while Hazlewood stayed unbeaten on seven off 31 balls. The last-wicket stand lasted as many as 110 balls and produced 25 runs and Australia were all out for 104 runs.
Josh Hazlewood spearheaded Australia’s dominant performance claiming four wickets as India were bowled out for just 150 runs.
Batting after captain Jasprit Bumrah won the toss on a fine morning, the visitors stumbled to 51-4 by lunch with superstar Kohli again out cheaply for five.
Yashasvi Jaiswal departed without scoring in the third over, edging an attempted drive off Starc to debutant Nathan McSweeney, who did well to collect low at gully.
With Shubman Gill nursing an injured thumb and ruled out, left-hander Devdutt Padikkal came in at number three for his second Test and survived a big lbw shout almost immediately.
Australia’s famed pace attack was at full throttle and it proved slow going for India, who crawled to 14-1 off 10 overs.
The nervy Padikkal faced 23 deliveries without scoring before his luck ran out when Hazlewood steamed in and enticed an edge that was easily taken by wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
That brought Kohli to the crease, in dire need of a big score after only two Test centuries in the last five years and with questions mounting over whether he still warranted selection, according to AFP.
Despite a stellar record in Australia, he was never comfortable and lasted just 12 balls before fending off a climbing Hazlewood thunderbolt that took an edge to Usman Khawaja at slip.
India’s woes worsened when opener KL Rahul feathered to Carey on 26 just before the break, having played well in tough conditions.
In a shock, India dropped veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and allrounder Ravindra Jadeja.
Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana were handed debuts, with Washington Sundar the preferred spin option.
Nitish Kumar Reddy made 41 runs while Rishabh Pant scored 37 against the hosts. Josh Hazlewood collected four wickets while Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Marsh took two wickets each.
