NAGPUR: Did Australia get it wrong? Obviously not. It will be too early to draw a conclusion with the four-match Test series just a day old.
To begin with, all talk surrounding the VCA Stadium pitch in Jamtha, Nagpur gave way to hope as the day started on a positive note for the Aussies. Their skipper, Pat Cummins, maintained his good form of winning a majority of tosses. As he said on the eve of the match, he had no hesitation in batting first on a surface where batting in the fourth innings is expected to be extremely difficult.
But the battle was only half won. They still had to negotiate India's bowling attack, especially the spinners, and put runs on the scoreboard to exert more pressure on their opponents.
Agreed, their side is packed with left-handers (total five, four in top eight) and the strip was apparently designed to trouble them. But they dropped Travis Head, who had scored a century and four half-centuries in his previous five Tests. It invited a lot of criticism as well, with former Australian players including Matthew Hayden and Steve Waugh questioning the team management over the move to axe Head, the No 4 Test batter in the world.
Above all, the visitors seemed to have prepared well ahead of the series as they flew in an R Ashwin impersonator to the nets during their short camp in Alur, Bengaluru ahead of the series. The homework even paid off as Ashwin went wicketless in his first 10 overs. But amid all the noise around the 36-year-old off-break bowler.
However, they forgot to devise plans for their tormentor on Indian pitches — Ravindra Jadeja. It cost them as the Saurashtraian claimed the 11th five-for of his career to dismantle the Aussies. No doubt, Ashwin has been India's bowling mainstay but it's Jadeja who has been a thorn in the flesh for the Australian side for years. They seem to be his most favoured opponents, at least on Indian decks.
Among the eight countries he has played Tests against, he has claimed the most wickets against Aussies. To be precise, 68 till Thursday from 12-and-a-half matches. The five-for on Day 1 in Nagpur was his fourth against them. His strike rate of 48.9 against them is also his best among nations against whom he has played more than a Test.
More importantly, he has picked wickets in heaps in two previous series Australia played in India (24 in 2013 and 25 in 2017). Ashwin, though, had topped him with 29 in 2013 but it came down to 21 in the next series four years later.
With Jadeja showing no signs of rustiness despite staying away from the game for five months due to knee surgery, the visitors frittered away the toss advantage. It was he who broke the dangerous-looking third-wicket partnership of 82 runs between Marnus Labuschagne (49) and Steven Smith (37) to give India a wicket soon after lunch. He had Labuschagne stumped before disturbing Smith's stumps.
"They were searching for runs and it wasn’t easy to rotate strike and get runs off each ball. Once you start bowling in good areas every delivery, they would also start trying different things and they were busy batters and once they had a partnership, I thought, I should bowl as many dot balls as possible, consistently. The pitch wasn’t offering turn so, had to bowl in good areas and maintain good line and length," Jadeja told reporters on the twin success.
"I used the crease as not every delivery was turning and as I said the bounce was low, so trying to create doubts in minds of the batters, I was going wide off the crease and coming close to the stumps and some deliveries if they stepped out and it turned, there would always be a chance, luckily he (Labuschagne) stepped out to one that one turned after pitching. And for Smith, the ball went straight from that same wide of the crease," he added.
In the end, Australia were bowled out for a below-par total of 177 in 63.5 overs with 34-year-old Jadeja returning with impressive figures of 5/47 in his 22 overs. Ashwin was behind him with 3/42 in his spell of 15.5 overs.
The duo might have walked away with a major chunk of wickets but it was pacers Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami, who gave the hosts a dream start as they claimed a wicket each to send Australian openers — David Warner and Usman Khawaja — back with only two runs on the board.
In reply, India, who dropped Shubman Gill to accommodate KL Rahul and handed Test debuts to Suryakumar Yadav and KS Bharat, were comfortably placed at 77/1 after 24 overs.
Debutant off-spinner Todd Murphy claimed the wicket of Rahul in the penultimate over. Captain Rohit Sharma was unbeaten on 56 off 69 with nightwatchman Ashwin giving him company at the crease.