In the era of the World Test Championship, which has prompted teams to push for results – at the risk of preparing pitches that can backfire – and try their darndest to avoid draws, Test matches ending without victors have been rare but seldom lacking in drama. Sample the epic draw that India achieved in Sydney in early 2021, thus keeping the Border-Gavaskar Trophy level at 1-1 heading to the decider in Brisbane.
And now, round two at the Gabba, between the same two teams. Not a patch on the 2021 landmark win that an injury-ravaged Indian team achieved to end 32 years of Australian dominance at the Gabba, but still a match with plenty of twists and turns and battles within battles.
Unfortunately, rain and bad light had the final say on a Test match littered with more delays than your average Indian train, and a frantic final day ended prematurely with India just minutes into their second innings. It is a result they will gleefully have accepted after the start they had to this Test.
Only 13.2 overs were possible on a rain-marred opening day at the Gabba, but in that time there was evidence that India had started off on the wrong foot. The Australian openers were allowed plenty of leaves, with too few deliveries from India’s three quicks homing in on the stumps. Under slate grey skies, with rain in the air and on a green-tinged surface, India allowing Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney to score 28 runs before play was called off was ominous.
On day two, Australia surged to a position of dominance even as Jasprit Bumrah claimed five of the seven wickets to fall. Joined at the crease with the score 75/3 at the fall of Marnus Labuschagne, the pair of Steve Smith (101) and Travis Head (152) put on 241 to take the match away from India. The day ended with Australia 405/7.
They were bowled out for 445 during the first hour of play on day three, with Bumrah getting his sixth wicket and Alex Carey producing his first innings of note. Batting was far from tough and there had been little lateral movement from India’s pacers to suggest that matters would change in the time it took India’s openers to pad up and walk out to bat. But, lo and behold, India slipped in no time to 7/2 before Virat Kohli’s feeble drive at a ball from Josh Hazlewood left the score at 22/3.
Had the Gabba pitch changed after two rain delays? Absolutely not. There were runs on offer on day three, but against three very good pace bowlers the Indian batting, barring KL Rahul, combusted. Particularly those three who fell inside 7.2 overs before the rain returned. Surely this cannot be part of the discussions between India’s batting coach and these players.
Yashasvi Jaiswal edged the first ball from Mitchell Starc wide of fully for four and immediately clipped the second to Mitchell Marsh at forward short leg. A nothing shot to a ball on the stumps. First ball of Starc’s second over, Shubman Gill chased a full and wide one and nicked to Marsh, this time stationed at gully. Two young Indian batsmen, with years of success ahead of them, had perished in the span of minutes. To aggressive shots.
Kohli was unsettled by Starc’s bouncers, then as if on cue, wafted an attempted drive outside off to the weakest ball Hazlewood bowled during that spell and nicked off to Carey. How Kohli continues to be dismissed so often outside off stump might end up a case study in years to come.
The fourth wicket to fall on day that saw eight restarts on account of rain was Rishabh Pant, but he can point to a perfect length delivery from Pat Cummins that kissed the edge of his semi-angled bat.
All this while, Rahul, who had copped a nasty blow on the right wrist, showed the gumption to leave deliveries and play for time. Clearly the pick of India’s batting on what is shaping as a disastrous tour, the veteran of 55 Test matches has yet to play a defining innings this series but he has, based on runs scored and application shown, been India’s best performer with the bat. How the others have not taken a cue from Rahul’s batting remains a mystery.
When the fourth day began at the Gabba, India were 394 runs behind Australia with six wickets in hand. That soon became five, once Pat Cummins duped Rohit Sharma on 10 with a setup that was at once clever and all too evident. At 74/5, India had slipped further down the hole and even with rain breaks on the horizon, the situation was dire. It was not even remotely a contest.
As it panned out, India did not need to get anywhere near Australia’s 445, because the showers and the pair of Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja, first, and then Bumrah and Akash Deep, stunningly, helped get the total to 246. That total meant that India avoided the follow-on, and with more rain forecast for the final day, Australia’s aim at wrapping up an innings win had been hurt. What made it worse was the loss of Josh Hazlewood to a hamstring strain.
Full marks to Rahul for extending his start to a very valuable 84, which needed a big slice of luck on the fourth morning when Steve Smith dropped him on 33 with the simplest of catches put down at second slip. Rahul turned a corner with that reprieve and produced his best knock of the tour, and Jadeja – in his first appearance of the series – underlining why he remains India’s crisis man down the order with 77 from 123 deliveries.
Between intermittent showers, the senior pair blunted the Australian bowlers while showing to their more flamboyant batting team-mates that survival was possible on a fourth day pitch. Rahul was ready to leave deliveries that were moving away but did not hesitate to punish anything fractionally loose, while Jadeja did what he has been doing for years in the middle order.
That partnership of 67 from nearly 20 overs frustrated Australia, and Akash Deep and Bumrah took a cue and dragged India past the follow-on mark with a heroic tenth-wicket partnership. On the final day, Australia had no option but to bat again, and their approach of trying to pile on runs didn’t go to plan.
In 18 overs, the hosts lost seven wickets in a bizarre passage of play that saw Bumrah extend his match tally to nine wickets, and Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj take two each. And thus, it is India who have a bit of momentum heading to the MCG, and not Australia.
