Sunil Gavaskar scored 34 centuries in his Test career. Allan Border has 27 Test centuries to his name. Both have also captained their respective teams. Gavaskar said goodbye to cricket in the last years of the 80s. Allen Border played for 5-6 more years. But both these batsmen will be surprised to see what happened on the first day of the Perth Test. 17 wickets fell on the first day in the Perth Test. It is not that 17 wickets have never fallen in a day before in Test cricket. This has happened many times before. In fact, 27 wickets have also fallen in one day. In 1988, 27 wickets fell on the second day in the Lord’s Test between Australia and England. This is a record in the long history of Test cricket.
Talking about the Indian team, in the Bengaluru Test against Afghanistan in 2018, 24 wickets fell in the second day of play. But when wickets fell in large quantities in a single day, there used to be a difference in the performance of the two teams. That means one team used to be heavier than the other. In the Perth Test, the current first and second ranked teams in Test cricket were playing. It is surprising to see such a condition of the batsmen of the first and second number teams in the ICC rankings. It is surprising when only one of the big batsmen like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne is able to cross double figures in a single Test match. Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne are the only KL Rahul who could reach 26 runs. In such a situation, the question is, whose batsmen batted more poorly in the India-Australia team?
No one’s home is safe anymore
There are still four days of play left in the Perth Test. The result can be anything. But the message received from the Perth Test was that if wickets are made which provide excessive assistance to the fast bowlers, then the host team will also face problems. This is exactly like how recently India had made spin friendly wickets to trap New Zealand. But to get it one had to give. The New Zealand team won all three test matches of the series by batting with restraint and patience against the spin bowlers. This was the reason why India faced a challenge in the World Test Championship because New Zealand defeated India 3-0.
When the Indian team was all out for 150 runs, its fans were disappointed. Everyone felt that the batsmen of the Indian team had surrendered. But when it was the turn of the kangaroos, the situation did not change. Australian players were playing at home. If you compare the first day’s play, you will find that the Indian team had still crossed the fifty-run mark after losing 4 wickets. The Australian team had lost 6 wickets for 47 runs. That is, this scoreboard tells that the fight was not about who would bat better, but the fight seemed to be about who would bat worse?
All the Indian batsmen were caught out.
It was also interesting in the Perth Test that all the players of the Indian team were caught out in the first innings. This has happened before on a few occasions in the history of Test cricket. Wicketkeeper Alex Carey took four of these catches. Alex Carey caught the catches of KL Rahul, Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikal and Jasprit Bumrah. However, there is a lot of controversy regarding the catch of KL Rahul. Many cricketers are raising questions on technology. Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne also took 2 catches each. Virat Kohli was caught by Usman Khawaja. In contrast, out of the seven wickets that Australia fell, three batsmen were LBW and one was clean bowled. 3 players were caught behind the wicket. But now if you talk about the quality of batting then the matter will become a bit technical.
First of all, understand that no batsman in the world wants to be bowled or LBW. This is because being out in both these ways means that the batsman has completely dodged the line of the ball. Due to wrong ‘judging’ of the line, he either got bowled or LBW. Even after being caught out, one has to return to the pavilion, but it remains to be said that there was a mistake in understanding the movement of the ball and it got ‘edge’ i.e. the ball touched the edge of the bat. Many times the ball does not come completely on the bat and the shot is mistimed. It also happens that the shot does not have as much force as it should have. Overall the result is caught out.
Australian batsmen are also in bad condition in Perth
Now let us also know who were the batsmen who were bowled and LBW from Australia. Apart from Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith were LBW and Travis Head was bowled. Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith are counted among the great Test batsmen. Travis Head is a big enemy of India. Last time he scored a century in the final of the World Test Championship. Travis Head had also scored a century in the World Cup final. That is, if you evaluate the first day of this match neutrally, you will find that the batsmen of the host team were seen making more mistakes than the batsmen of the Indian team on their home pitch.
