King’s crash: Kohli fails early Perth pressure test
- by Admin
- November 22, 2024
Indian megastar Virat Kohli couldn’t handle the music composed by Australia’s quicks in a fiery first session of The West Test in Perth.
Australia are already in the driving seat in a dominant opening the heavyweight home summer. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood took two wickets each, leaving India x-xxx.
Kohl was forced to the crease less than an hour into the series and last just minutes in the middle, falling victim to a rising ball from Hazlewood and a neat catch by Usman Khawaja at first slip.
The setback left the tourists flailing at 3-32.
Kohli batted well out of crease and made a big effort to get forward in his brief stay at the crease.
“He has changed his guard. He is up and out of his crease, you’ll see that back foot is more over on middle and off-stump than we’re used to seeing,” Australian legend Ricky Ponting said on Channel 7 and 7plus.
“He is trying to get into the line of ball so he can hit the ball through the leg-side.
“The reason he is doing that, is because the way the Australians have bowled to him the last couple of times he has been in Australia, it has been this wider line has been his undoing.”
KL Rahul looked the best of the Indian batters but was sent packing for 26 after a contentious review. Rahul was given not out on-field, but Australia reviewed for a caught-behind call off Starc.
Front-on vision was inconclusive and side-on vision was unavailable. It meant a spike on snicko was all that was used to confirm the dismissal.
“What we feel is KL Rahul just thinks he has got a bit of a piece of his front edge pad. But you’ll actually see a gap between bat and pad on the time where you’ve got the ball passing the outside edge. So, he was really upset about it,” former opener Matthew Hayden told 7.
It came after Nathan McSweeney’s life as a Test cricketer began with a sharp catch at gully as India battled to handle Perth’s pace and bounce.
Starc had Yashasvi Jaiswal out edging to gully in the third over of the game after India elected to bat. McSweeney pouched the fast and low chance after replacing the injured Cam Green in the side and in the cordon.
The trio of Hazlewood, Starc and Cummns then bullied Duvdett Pradikkal for half an hour. The Aussie quicks peppered his outside edge and slammed balls into his pads with the Indian No.3 glued nervously to the crease.
He was then caught behind off Hazlewood for a torrid 23-ball duck that heaped pressure on teammates, including the out-of-touch Kohli.
Starc flung the first ball of the day down leg for four byes and also overstepped in his first over of the summer, but quickly found his radar.
The towering left-armer’s hard length made life difficult for an Indian top-order who have battled to adjust to the bounce early on this tour. Jaiswal made a nervous half-step and a prod forward when he was dismissed.
Earlier, stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah said he was confident the Perth Stadium deck was a “good wicket”.
Cummins said he was “pretty 50-50” around what he would have done if they had won the toss.
Asked if he would have batted first, Cummins said “yeah, that’s right, we were pretty 50-50. It’s a good wicket here”.
The surprise of the morning was India axing two superstar veterans Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for the first Test, despite them both having strong records in and against Australia.
McSweeney received his baggy green No.467 from Darren Lehmann before play and will open the batting alongside Usman Khawaja.
India have handed a debut to seam-bowling all-rounder Nitish Reddy and paceman Harshit Rana, while Washington Sundar has been preferred as the sole spinner and Devdutt Padikkal will bat at No.3.
The Indian debutants had their cap presented by Virat Kohli.
A rare wet November week has left question marks over the wicket, with curator Isaac McDonald hinting the pitch would not deteriorate as much as typical Perth decks.
There is some grass coverage on the deck, which is not expected to properly harden up until the weekend.
More to come
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