Ind vs Aus Test Match: 1st Test at Adelaide Day 1, Kohli takes India to 128/3

India vs Australia 2020: First Test at Adelaide: India have won this session but Australian bowlers have also done a good job. The visitors lost an important wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara but not before a good partnership between him and Virat Kohli. The Indian skipper is looking good in the middle. Spinner Nathan Lyon showed fine form with the ball.

Even in 2020, there couldn’t have been a more appropriate catch-line for a series where Kohli’s magnificence meets its match in Steve Smith’s manic consistency, Cheteshwar Pujara’s doggedness challenged by a much younger Marnus Labuschagne, ready to show the world that he isn’t a one-season wonder. All this would be under lights at the Adelaide Oval.

Captain Virat Kohli won the toss at Adelaide Oval as the visitors elected to bat first in the day/night Test. Prithvi Shaw misjudged Mitchell Starc’s length delivery outside off, which shaped in late, to give the left-arm speedster his first wicket of the ICC World Test Championship series.

There are fast men on both sides aiming to instill the fear of pink ball in the twilight zone, creating all sorts of doubts in the batsmen’s minds. Josh Hazlewood versus Mohammed Shami will be as enticing a sub-plot as Jasprit Bumrah bowling those yorkers in reply to Pat Cummins’ barrage of bouncers.

With a workhorse like Ishant Sharma missing from Indian ranks and the enforcer David Warner absent in the Australian line-up, the teams are evenly placed in terms of strength.

However, there will certainly be some distinct home advantage for Australia along with the experience of playing more Day/Night Tests.

A day/night Test match has its own little grammar where batsmen are expected to attack in the first session while bowlers are at their peak once the sun sets, allowing the pink kookaburra to pick its pace up.

Never has an Indian team been so spoilt for choices with multiple options in place for various positions.

Even 24 hours before the game, one can’t be sure what exactly would be the perfect combination going into a Test match which isn’t exactly conventional in nature.

And the two practice games have only thrown up more dilemmas for India rather than giving them definitive answers that they were seeking from the encounters.

The biggest debate is the opening position. Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal, as a pair, flopped in New Zealand on seaming tracks, and Shaw’s shot-a-ball trigger happy batting technique isn’t exactly inspiring the highest confidence.

In Shubman Gill, India have one for the future but will Kohli and Ravi Shastri be ready to throw a youngster at the deep end of the pool or overlook KL Rahul’s poor Test track record and bank more on his experience?

Two days before the game, a clear picture hasn’t emerged although Gill’s batting has earned him the vote of both Allan Border and Sunil Gavaskar, the two names inscribed on the glittering trophy that the teams are playing for.

The Australia vs India First Test will be telecast on the Sony Pictures Sports Network. The match will also be live-streamed on SonyLIV.

Squads
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandra Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav.

Australia: Tim Paine (captain & wicketkeeper), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade.