India vs Australia | Takeaways: Virat Kohli’s Lord’s encore and Finch’s struggle against induckers
Although bowlers made a good comeback in the second session of the day, Australia should be happy for their score of 277/6 that is becoming increasingly difficult to bat. While the pace was the calling card of the day, footmarks on the surface means India might have gotten the combination wrong.
Repeat of Lord’sÂ
For any Test captain and coach, deciding the final XI is never an easy decision. More so because they have to wait until the last moment to understand the condition of the pitch. When India played England at Lord’s earlier this year, the condition was already overcast and rainy with the opening day's play washed out. But Virat Kohli still decided to field two spinners by replacing a pacer Umesh Yadav. As the game went on, the bold decision proved to be a terrible one. India missed out a trick in that game.Â
After the end of the first-day play, it is apparent that India were deceived by the talks of pace and bounce at the Optus. Curator Brett Sipthorpe revealed that they are trying to deliver the fastest, bounciest pitch they can, to keep the legacy of WACA alive. That played into India’s hands, who filled their team with four pacers and only one part-time off-spinner in the form of Hanuma Vihari - a strategy they applied in the Johannesburg Test earlier this year.Â
The only difference was that the grass was not the true representation of what was in store in the match. Just after the first session of the day’s play, footmarks were created and uneven bounce came to play. Given the Perth temperature is hovering around 37-38 ° C, the cracks are bound to come by. If that happens, which looks more likely now, Lyon could be a big factor given India are going to bat fourth.Â
The Umesh-Bumrah set-up
There is a clear difference between the approach of Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah. The duo is two different type of bowlers - Umesh swings it away of the right-hander and Bumrah brings it in. While Umesh is more erratic in his approach, Bumrah though keeps his discipline. Amidst a lot of differences, the duo complemented themselves really well to dismiss Usman Khawaja.Â
The duo bowled a lot of deliveries from around the wicket to trouble Khawaja with the angle due to the bounce off the surface which quickened up after the lunch. This was a clear attribution of setting up a batsman through constant pressure. He first welcomed Khawaja with a couple of bouncers that angled in from around the wicket and straightened away past the outside edge of the bat. In between the over No. 35 to 46, he bowled 25 balls and the Queenslander was only able to score 1 run off it.Â
From the other end, Umesh tried to bowl full enough deliveries - a clear anomaly from his tactics of bowling wide half-volleys - and Khawaja started becoming impatient by then. The pressure created by the round the wicket angle told as Umesh’s a bit wide delivery for the release shot found the top-edge of him. It was no different in Adelaide as well when Ashwin cramped him on the crease and eventually dismissed him by building pressure on him. India can now take a clue from the last three dismissals and chalk out the plan for the following games.
India struggled but get a long-term solution for Finch
Aaron Finch is a superb limited-overs batsman, but he is a conundrum like KL Rahul in Tests. He is very good when the ball comes on to the bat in the red-ball format, but once it swings into him, he struggles to get going, often gets trapped or lose his leg-stump. Indian pacers wayward deliveries in the first session today was one of the major reason behind Finch and Marcus Harris going gaga and put up a 100-plus opening partnership.Â
In the second session though, India brought in a completely different approach to their armoury. Seeing Finch struggling against balls swinging or seaming into his pads, Indian pacers bowled cleverly to him by mixing two away swingers with one in-swinger, which helped them drag Finch across the crease. The excessive movement - that
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