PUNE:If there is talk of spin in the air, bring on the spinners. Virat Kohli is forthright in thoughts and execution of plans. There is little by way of disguise in what he does. Amid predictions of spin on the MCA Stadium pitch, he wasted little time in exposing the Aussies to what they are not comfortable with.
In came Ravichandran Ashwin to bowl the second over of the match. Against South Africa in late 2015, he had bowled the first over in both innings in Mohali and was pressed into action in the second over on two occasions in Nagpur. Last year against England too, he was asked to do a similar job.
Difference between those and Thursday is India had batted first in those games. Bowled out on the first day against South Africa, getting the principal spinner in straight up was a ploy to counterattack. Here, the idea was drawing first blood. Not that it paid immediate dividends, Ashwin got the first of his two wickets in his 20th over, but a statement was made.
A spirited opening stand, Matt Renshaw’s determined half-century, Umesh Yadav’s bravery with the old ball, collapse after tea and Mitchell Starc’s last-wicket stand with Josh Hazlewood — there were several highlights. Standing prominent among those was the move to unleash Ashwin so early. Having faced two spinners from the start of the innings in Sri Lanka last year, Australia responded well. “We had discussed the possibility of facing spinners early on. It wasn’t very surprising. And playing in these conditions, we are ready to face these situations,” said Renshaw, the off-spinner’s second victim.
The other way of looking at the strategy is, it deprived a genuine pacer the chance to attack with the new ball. Umesh was introduced in the 28th over. The most probing of the five in terms of making batsmen play, he finished the day as the most successful bowler. India’s batting coach Sanjay Bangar cited Umesh’s contribution as an indicator of success of the spin-first tactic. “We’ve seen Umesh being effective with the old ball. That’s when he gets it to reverse. Plus, both openers being left-handers prompted us to start with an off-spinner. It was Ishant (Sharma) ahead of Umesh keeping in mind his success against left-handers.”
It worked well for India, considering the performances of the two. Unsuccessful in the first session, Ashwin went past the outside edge repeatedly for figures of 16-6-23-0 before lunch. And after removing David Warner with his second delivery, Umesh charged in hard for the rest of the day.
“He was fresh even towards the end of play. He has improved his wrist position to get reverse swing and his action has better balance after he made his strides shorter. It would’ve been better to get them out for 230. But our effort was alright,” said Bangar.
Spinner with new ball and fast bowler with old, this Indian team is changing concepts. Few would complain as long as it works.
atreyo@newindianexpress.com