Adelaide, December 6, 2024 (Navroze Bureau)- Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne stitched a solid partnership for the second wicket that helped Australia recover from an early blow. The hosts were 86/1 at stumps in reply to India’s 180-all out on the opening day of the pink-ball Test in Adelaide. Jasprit Bumrah made an early breakthrough for India as he got rid of Australia opener Usman Khawaja for 13 off 35.
Earlier, Nitish Reddy top-scored with 42 off 54 while Mitchell Starc took a six-wicket haul, his first against India in Tests. He dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana to finish with bowling figures of 6/48 from 14.1 overs. Pat Cummins and Scott Boland took two wickets each.
Boland struck soon after the start of second session when he trapped India captain Rohit Sharma LBW on 1. This was after Starc had landed three big blows to leave India wobbling in Adelaide by the time the tea break was taken.
He first got rid of Jaiswal for a golden duck with what was the first ball of the pink-ball Test. A good partnership between KL Rahul and Shubman Gill followed that took India to 69/1 before Starc worked his magic again. He removed Rahul and Virat Kohli in quick succession before Boland trapped Shubman Gill LBW on 31.
Rohit-led India opted to bat first after winning the coin toss. They made three changes to their playing 11 with Rohit, Gill and Ashwin coming into the side in place of Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal and Washington Sundar.