‘Negative, illegal’ moment the Aussie castle crumbled; King’s heir arrives — First Test Day 3 Talking Points

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The visitors piled on the pain as first Yashasvi Jaiswal and then Kohli brought up triple figures, before a late declaration left the Aussies reeling as Nathan McSweeney, Pat Cummins and Marnus Labuschagne couldn’t hang on.

Cricket great Ravi Shastri was impressed with India’s response after their “kick up the backside”, as they now hold a commanding 521-run lead heading into day four.

Here are the Talking Points after Day Three.

A NEW KING IS CORONATED ON A DAY AN OLD LION ROARS

It is the standing ovation that crowned the arrival of a new champion in one of cricket’s toughest cauldrons amid universal recognition the sport has unearthed a special talent.

As Yashasvi Jaiswal walked from the centre of Perth Stadium following his superb 161, the 26,166 in attendance afforded rapturous applause to the prolific Indian opener.

Perth fans can be prickly. Opposition teams, be they domestic or international, are likely to cop their wrath. But they admire excellence and Jaiswal’s performance was truly that, as was the sparking century that followed later in the day from Virat Kohli.

If it is true that by making it in Mumbai, you can make it anywhere, it can be said that if a batter can perfect Perth, they are likely to be able to excel everywhere around the world.

When Jaiswal arrived at the crease on Saturday, the dressing rooms of both nations were in a state of shock. In the space of four sessions, 20 wickets had fallen for a paltry 254 runs.

Kohli had been brought undone by bounce in the first innings, Steve Smith by the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah. The Perth pitch was at its punchiest and felling world-class batters at an average of 12.7.

Jaiswal was on a pair and pitted against arguably the best quartet of bowlers Australia has ever produced, each of them hungry to win back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Talk about pressure. But what followed was a masterpiece from the Indian prodigy.

He gave lip to Mitchell Starc. He defied Pat Cummins. He nailed Nathan Lyon and handled the relentless pressure applied by Josh Hazlewood for more than a day, and with ease.

Jaiswal played with patience in the infancy of his innings, respecting the talents of those plotting his downfall, and later unleashed his natural flair with phenomenal flourishes.

Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri was among the legion delighted with Jaiswal’s deeds.

“When you are on your first tour of Australia, 22 years of age … there’s a big build up. You’ve been touted as the next big thing and to live up to those expectations, I think he did a fabulous job,” the Fox Cricket expert analyst said.

“It’s not easy. (Australia) is one of the toughest places to deliver, especially in a place like Perth. When you come from the sub-continent, the bounce that you are used to there as compared to here in Perth is chalk and cheese.

“For him to adapt and do everything right, especially after getting out for a duck in the first innings, is a tribute to his character and his temperament.”

Jaiswal now has four centuries to his name and each of them have been big ones. There is the 171 on debut against the West Indies. The consecutive 200s in India earlier this year.

And now he has a mighty century against the Australians in an innings that will almost certainly give his nation the upper-hand leading into the Adelaide Test in early December.

This was not the day a star was born. Jaiswal had already established himself as that.

But on a day Kohli reminded Australians why he is a legend with an unbeaten century, Jaiswal confirmed himself as the next King of Indian cricket.

“It’s big boots to fill but he has not let himself down in any sort of way,” Shastri told foxsports.com.au.

“We know he’s had a fabulous start to his career – back-to-back double hundreds (and) a big hundred. But to come to Australia and get a hundred in your very first Test match, he’ll go back from here twice the player.

“He set the stadium alight today.”

Kohli was under significant pressure heading into the First Test but pounced on the fatiguing Australian attack left vulnerable by Jaiswal’s marathon.

“Virat Kohli what a moment, your first Test century in 16 months and you didn’t even know,” Gilchrist said.

“Tell us how meaningful is that? We could see what it meant and the gesture to your wife up in the stand.”

“Yeah look I mean my wife Anushka has been right by my side through thick and thin,” Kohli said.

“She knows everything that goes on behind the scenes when I’m in the room What goes on in your head when you don’t play as well or you make a few mistakes when you are getting yourself in.

“I just wanted to contribute to the team scores. I’m not a guy who wants to hang around just for the sake of it.

“I take pride in performing for my country and it just feels amazing and the fact that she is here makes it even more special.”

‘DESPONDENT’ AUSSIES HIT NEW LOW

Not much went right for the Australians on day three as India’s batsmen put the tiring attack to the sword.

Without the option of injured all-rounder Cam Green, the ball was handed to Marnus Labuschagne.

But he quickly became the most expensive of the Aussie attack, and as Kohli was blasting his way to a drought-breaking ton, was told off for negative bowling outside leg stump.

It summed up the last half hour of the Indian innings where Australia looked completely ineffective, the visitors doing what they liked, with Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan both raising concerns over Labuschagne’s tactic.

“Have you ever seen such a despondent team of Australian cricketers, resorting to those tactics? What are deemed negative, illegal tactics really by the rulebook?” Gilchrist questioned.

“I’ve not seen that. I’m looking at this Australian side, they’re a terrific side, and for whatever reason they bowl out India for 150, then only bat well enough to only get 104, and then with the ball in hand they had periods where they bowled nicely but that last half an hour is something I’ve not seen in Australia,” Vaughan added.

“Every boundary rider was on the fence, Labuschagne’s bowling around the wicket, he’s bowling negatively.”

The Labuschagne experiment wasn’t the only Pat Cummins tactic questioned.

Earlier in the day, Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal simply picked up where he left off when he strolled to the crease on Sunday morning.

He brought up his century in the first session with a confidence defying his 22 years of age.

But Australia’s tactics towards the young gun became a talking point on day three.

Statistics showed Jaiswal scored more runs behind the wicket in his century stand – yet to decision to move a slip deep didn’t come until the Indian rising star was past triple figures.

Aussie great Allan Border questioned why it took so long for the change.

“For me, watching those (century) highlights it’s worth having a bloke down there,” he said on Fox Cricket.

“The third slip sort of line, you put a man down there and bowl some short stuff at him and just see what happens.

“If he’s trying to ramp… it’s a dangerous shot. If you’ve got the man down there, he might change his tactics.

“Just put that little bit of doubt in the mind.

“A lot of balls have gone down there, so it is worth thinking about not just for this game but for future Tests.”

If Nathan Lyon’s dismissal of Rishabh Pant was part of a well-executed plan, the Aussies didn’t get it right given what unfolded for Jaiswal.

Shortly after Border’s tactic talk, the decision was made to move Travis Head into a deep third slip position.

And it almost paid off a few overs later when Jaiswal only just cleared the top of Head. Had Head been back on the rope, Jaiswal’s innings would have been over.

“I can’t believe that. It’s gone straight to him but over his head,” a stunned Border said.

“He is 10 metres in.

“The plan nearly worked! First ball… I mean, what are the chances of getting between the fielder and the rope?”

Commentator Kerry O’Keeffe was concerned by what he saw from the Aussies as Jaiswal’s innings rolled on.

“I think it’s safe to say that Australia have got no real answers for Jaiswal at the moment and Nathan Lyon is just going through the motions – he doesn’t know quite what to bowl to him,” he lamented.

“He’s just waiting for a mistake,” Mark Waugh added on Fox Cricket.

“And when you’re waiting for mistakes from a classy player on a good batting deck, you might wait a long time.”

‘WHO IS PUSHING?’: CONCERN FOR ‘COMFORTABLE’ AUSSIES

Should Australian cricket fans be concerned about where our team is heading?

Former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan says yes.

The Aussies were rolled by India for an embarrassing 104 early on day two – and that wasn’t the end of their First Test pain.

By the end of day three, the home side were staring down a 521-run deficit with just seven wickets left after debutant Nathan McSweeney (0), Pat Cummins (2) and Marnus Labuschagne (3) all went in a savage late spell before stumps.

Vaughan fears there are players within the Aussie line up that have become “too comfortable” and has questioned where the next generation was going to come from.

“I think the debate over the next week or two going into the second and third Test matches will be: Are Australia short of a gallop and they needed this game to get back into Test match cricket mode? Or are they a team that’s just starting to get over the edge?” he said.

“I think obviously the batting unit is a batting unit that has had plenty of success in the past. There’s some great players in it – but consistently now for a number of games it’s just not managed to score the runs that many would have expected, including themselves.

“What is underneath this Australian batting line up really pushing the standards in the first team?

“The standards generally get driven in a team because you’ve got many players pushing for places in it – I just don’t see too many doing it.

“When Australia had a batting line up that had many world class players in it, I reckon you probably had seven or eight world class players not in it – and that was just in the batting department.

“Who is pushing? How many players outside of this Australian camp… outside of (Josh Inglis), who are the players getting the numbers to put these players in this team under pressure? I just don’t see it.”

Cricket great Ravi Shastri agreed.

“I am seriously worried about the depth in Australian cricket,” he told foxsports.com.au.

“There were times when players had to play years and years of cricket to make the cut. Mike Hussey, Matthew Hayden – years and years, and you look down the ranks there in Shield cricket and some of the youngsters coming through the ranks, there aren’t many there.

“When you look at the batting line up, a couple of guys in the evening of their career, on the other side of 30 – deep into the 30s, you want to have some depth.

“Australia will have to find something from somewhere.”

It’s been a decade since the Aussies tasted Test series victory over India – and that was at a time Adam Voges and Michael Klinger scored more than 1000 runs in the Sheffield Shield.

The likes of Callum Ferguson, Peter Nevill, Peter Handscomb, Matt Wade and Dan Christian all averaged higher than 50 in their nine or more Shield matches.

Currently, 18 players (including Marcus Harris, Handscomb, Sam Konstas, Matt Renshaw and Sam Whiteman) have scored a century this Shield season that is only two months old.

Labuschagne’s form is a massive worry for the Australians, with the batsman reaching triple figures just once in past two years.

Aussie great Michael Hussey said he was prepared to reserve judgement on where this Test team sat.

“I’m not willing to jump at shadows just yet,” he said.

“You just think about coming into this series, all the talk was about India. They’d lost 3-0 to NZ.

“The Australian batting order has had one innings.

“Yes, they didn’t perform as well as they would have liked… I’m willing to just wait, be patient and see and make more of a judgement after three Test matches.

“The Australian public don’t like the Australian team getting beaten, and beaten badly.”

PANT UNPLUGGED BY MASTER PLAN

Fox Cricket’s newest analyst David Warner was taking a well-deserved break from the broadcast booth to shoot the breeze with some journalists in the press box when his expert eye spotted something.

With Nathan Lyon reintroduced into the attack and Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant in the infancy of his innings, the former Australian opener sensed something was about to happen.

It went like clockwork. Pant charged forward to take the champion off-spinner on. Lyon, meanwhile, bowled his delivery far wider of off-stump than usual and was able to beat the bat of Pant, who scrambled like a crab across the crease in a fruitless bid to smother the ball.

Yet despite the width of the delivery, keeper Alex Carey was well-positioned to both take the ball and whip the bails off before the Indian No.5 could make ground back to his crease.

It was, Warner declared, a tactical masterclass and the result of good planning. All those hours assessing the opposition had paid off in this instance.

“That was premeditated. I bet you Alex Carey was standing wider of the stumps,” he said.

Sure enough, Warner was spot on. The footage shows Carey’s right-foot directly in line with Pant’s off-stump, with the majority of the wicketkeeper’s body outside the line of the wicket.

In commentary, Mark Waugh noted the same, immediately spotting a well executed plan.

“I think that was a planned move by Nathan Lyon and Alex Carey,” Waugh said.

“They thought there was a good chance that Rishabh Pant would run down the track and he didn’t let them down. The first ball from Nathan Lyon after drinks was pushed wide and (Pant) could not reach it, but Alex Carey could reach it well enough to whip the bails off.

“I think the Australians were working on the plan that he would do it to Nathan Lyon, hence spearing it wide. It (left) a bit of work for Alex Carey to do — it was quite slow and he had to wait for it to get to him.”

WHAT DOES INDIA DO WITH KL RAHUL?

As impressively as Yashasvi Jaiswal batted, KL Rahul proved a productive pillar support for his younger teammate in a record-setting partnership at the top of the order.

If the Perth wicket played as though it had changed temperament between Friday and Saturday, it could be said Rahul presented as a completely different player to the man who was struggling during the India A game against Australia A at the MCG a few weeks ago.

The 32-year-old had been batting down the order but was sent to Australia for the preparatory series when it became clear skipper Rohit Sharma would be unable to play in Perth. But he only managed scores 4 and 10 when struggling for rhythm.

The wonders of a week in the nets at the WACA reaped rich rewards for the 32-year-old, who had previously made 68 against Bangladesh in September but then failed in one outing against New Zealand when scoring a duck and 12 in the Test in Bengaluru.

Amid the chaos on the first day when India was bowled out for 150 in two sessions, Rahul batted stoutly when scoring 26 from 74 balls before edging Mitchell Starc to wicketkeeper Alex Carey.

He fell to the same combination on Saturday, but only after combining for a 201-run partnership with Jaiswal, with his contribution of 77 helping take the match away from the Australians.

The challenge for Indian selectors will be to consider where Rahul bats next given the pending arrival in Australia of Sharma.

Australian great Adam Gilchrist said it was a bonus for the Indians to be able to select a batter capable of showing steel at the top of the order or slotting in where needed for different roles.

Debutant Devdutt Padikkal demonstrated enough to suggest India have another talented young batter to call on, with his second innings of 25 a stronger performance.

But given Rahul’s versatility, he shapes as a player who can be deployed wherever India’s selectors feel there is a void.

“There’s still fair bit to play out in this game, but I think KL is an experienced player and he’s batted anywhere from one to six in this team,” Gilchrist told foxsports.com.au

“I’m speculating without any knowledge, but he could easily go in at number three. Paddikal was not in the original touring party either. So maybe KL could go in at No.3 when Rohit slots back in.”