Day two of the Adelaide Test had the effect of making you appreciate the quality of top-order batting on display in this match.
The problem for Australia was that the batting in question was what Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Che Pujara produced on day one.
It could have been drearier still for the home team.
The only thing worse than their batting was India’s fielding, including six dropped catches of escalating comedic properties.
There was also India’s dismal tail-end efforts in the first session of the day, when the tourists lost 4-11 from 25 deliveries to finish on 244.
By the evening session that total looked imposing. Australia collapsed to 191.
Only captain Tim Paine — throwing caution to the wind for an undefeated 73 when the cause was hopeless — and Marnus Labuschagne, displayed the combination of skill and discernment to prosper in the face of disciplined bowling and difficult conditions.
Several giant slices of luck helped Labuschagne, too — India grassed three catching chances given by the number three and he also had a DRS reprieve before running out of lives on 47 from 119 deliveries.
It was a measure of Australia’s battle that debutant Cameron Green’s 11 runs raised the pulse — more assured than Rob Quiney’s infamous 9, not quite as smooth as Usman Khawaja’s 37.
Before play, Green said he’d never seen his father Gary cry until Pat Cummins appeared with Australia’s newest baggy green. Neither would have factored in Virat Kohli flying horizontally to secure a brilliant catch and prematurely end Green’s maiden knock.
Elsewhere, the problems ran from the top down.
It entered cricket folklore that Indian fast bowling ace Jasprit Bumrah developed his lethal yorkers by aiming at the skirting boards of the family home when his mother wouldn’t let him outside. Here the skirting boards were replaced by the pads of Australian openers Matthew Wade and Joe Burns, both of whom indignantly wasted DRS reviews when trapped LBW for single-figure scores after an hour of agonising toil.
Perhaps the makeshift openers are an easy target. Perhaps also some stock should be placed in their efforts to take the shine off the pink ball in tricky circumstances. But it was not a sight to inspire confidence or good omens. Burns has looked a dead man walking for a month.
Bob Simpson once outlined the traits that made Bill Lawry his ideal opening partner: “hard as nails, ruthless, detached and determined at the crease — but wonderfully, immensely generous to bat with.”
Australia’s selectors could be said to have focused a little too heavily on the first trait in the selection of Wade, of no previous first-class experience in the role. They probably recalled Wade’s efforts against New Zealand last summer, when he repeatedly took the full force of Neil Wagner’s bouncers to the arms and chest, challenging the Kiwi quick: “Keep coming, Big Boy.”
Here against India, Wade did it again, crouching low and happily absorbing on his chest and bicep the express pace of Bumrah and Umesh Yadav.
No doubt it impressed Australian coach Justin Langer, but it wouldn’t have done Australia much good if Wade’s arm was broken. It didn’t regardless. Langer couldn’t hide his glee when Wade faced off against Wagner. No wonder the unassuming specialist Marcus Harris sits on the sidelines.
In the Burns-Wade union, another of Simpson’s adages was at play — that ones and threes are the most valuable scoring shots for openers, both rotating the strike and, particularly with left-right hand partnerships, limiting the ability of opening bowlers to find a rhythm and work over one target.
By the time Wade perished in the 16th over, Burns had handed him the strike with a single only once. It took 28 deliveries of mostly unthreatening short stuff before Wade opened the account with a back-foot drive to the boundary at deep extra cover. Pressure steadily built and was almost paralytic to Burns: frozen in a partial desire to hook, he was struck a nasty front-on blow to the shoulder by Bumrah and continued to look a shadow of his once-confident self.
Such is the interpersonal chemistry and tactical equilibrium David Warner and Will Pucovski need to manufacture once both return from injury, possibly (and hopefully) in time for the Melbourne Test.
Plaudits should be heaped on India’s bowlers. Bumrah was his usual brilliant self, all convivial smiles as he bowled like a demon. Yadav provided the grunt to off-set the finesse at the other end, and Mohammad Shami bowled with borderline genius yet finished wicketless.
Just as Nathan Lyon waited an age for his turn on day one, Indian off-spinner Ravi Ashwin cooled his jets for 26 overs before making a mockery of pre-game suggestions that India might opt for an all-pace attack. He sprang into action in his first over, confusing Steve Smith — neither forward nor back — into playing for spin to a ball that went straight, caught the edge and was gleefully accepted by Rahane at slip.
That brought Travis Head to the crease. Left-handers are to Ashwin what Dalmatians were to Cruella de Vil, and for the fourth time in Tests the Indian got his man, this time from a return catch. Head may well make the grade, but more convincing Test batsmen have received far fewer opportunities.
As the day wore on, and Paine’s bright innings gathered steam amid the gloom, the broadcaster manoeuvred Spider-Cam into his face at drinks and asked for an assessment of the damage.
Paine said it was “good fun”, which was true in the sense of the 15 wickets and 211 runs produced across three innings, and the broad grin of nightwatchman Bumrah after Pat Cummins removed Prithvi Shaw in the closing stages.
But the Australian captain might not be so chipper in a few days’ time.
