3 Things we learnt from Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne

The most celebrated Test match of the calendar year got underway at the colossal Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday, 26 December. Courtesy their victory at Perth, Australia had neutralised India’s early initiative. With the series level at 1-1, both teams had everything to play for at the MCG.

India won the toss and chose to bat, hence giving their rookie pair of Vihari and Agarwal first use of the wicket. While the former looked circumspect and eventually perished with the score reading 40, the latter went on to notch a fifty on debut.

After Agarwal’s dismissal on the stroke of tea, Australia sniffed an opportunity as they hadn’t let the Indian batsmen run away with the game. However, they were unable to prize out the reliable duo of Pujara and Kohli

The Indians ended the day on 215-2. While the visitors didn’t really allow too many sniffs to the Aussie bowlers, they weren’t able to score freely as well. Thus, the game is tantalisingly poised heading into the second day.

Through this article, we would look at three things that we learnt from the action on Day 1 and what implications it might have moving forward.

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#3 Cummins proves his worth again

Cummins was a bright spot in an otherwise dull day for Australia

India started off the day confidently with their openers keeping Starc and Hazlewood at bay for the first hour. The pitch looked unthreatening with only the odd ball causing the batsmen problems. Yet, when Cummins entered the fray, it was a different ball game altogether.

Cummins was introduced into the attack and he immediately extracted pace and bounce of a seemingly dull pitch. He hit Vihari with a bouncer and the batsman never looked comfortable after the blow.

The pressure exerted by Cummins eventually led to Vihari getting into an awkward mess in the 19th over. The right-hander seemingly lost sight of a back of a length delivery and nervously hanged his bat to protect himself. The ball took the glove and landed safely in Finch’s palm.

Later in the day, with the game under India’s grasp, he got the better of Agarwal to hand Australia a possible lifeline.

The pitch was unresponsive for the majority of the day. Yet, whenever Cummins came on to bowl, he got some purchase out if it. Australia had to toil long and hard and wickets were hard to come by. However, Cummins underlined his credentials by popping up with the only wickets of the day.

On a day when Starc and Hazlewood failed to make an impact, Cummins yet again proved his worth.

#2 India need to get at least 375 in their first innings

Kohli will need to push on tomorrow

India was greeted with a green top at Perth after being provided a relatively friendly pitch at Adelaide. However, at Melbourne, the pitch had an odd look to it and as the day went on, the wicket’s characteristic of not providing a lot of help came to the fore.

The first new ball didn’t move a lot and the fast bowlers failed to extract any swing or seam movement. Moreover, the pitch was quite slow which made the back of a length delivery easy to negotiate.

When Lyon came on to bowl, he failed to extract spin too. Even when he did, the sluggish nature of the pitch enabled the batsmen to come through the threat with ease.

The only headache that the batsmen had throughout was the last half an hour of play with the second new ball. However, on today’s evidence, one can expect the pitch to be back to its unresponsive self when the shine of the new ball wears off.

Over the course of the next couple of days, the pitch could get better for batting. Thus, it is imperative that India apply a considerable amount of pressure on the Aussies to prevent them from making merry while the sun shines.

At 215-2, the Indian dressing room would be much happier than its Australian counterpart. Yet, the Aussies kept the scoring rate low, meaning that a couple of quick wickets could still turn the tide their way.

The pitch has looked docile till now and if India is to control the match, they need to get another 150 runs, at least. A failure to do so might lead to India handing the initiative to Australia.

For a while, India’s batting has let them down overseas. However, if they can breach the 400 mark here, they could well be on their way to retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

#1 Mayank Agarwal looks the real deal

Agarwal had a debut to remember

The last time an Indian opener made his Test debut in Australia was way back in 1947-48 at Sydney. Nearly 71 years later, India decided to hand Agarwal his debut, making him only the second Indian Test opener ever to make his bow Down Under.

Agarwal has scored tons and tons of runs over the past couple of domestic seasons. On debut, the lad from Karnataka looked unfazed and displayed the solidity that had enabled him to scale such high peaks domestically.

He handled the initial threat of Starc and Hazlewood and looked equally accomplished against the spin maestro, Lyon.

Moreover, he was able to completely dominate Lyon and his ability to step down the track fiddled with the off-spinner’s normally impeccable length.

Through his performance, Agarwal brought an air of freshness to an opening slot that had been stinking of staleness.

The opener has been knocking on the Indian door for a while now and he finally broke it down at Melbourne. And if his display is any yardstick, one can expect him to don the famous Indian white jersey for years to come.

For a while, the Indian test opening future looked bleak. Yet, with the likes of Shaw and Agarwal now in the limelight, it doesn’t look that dark.

Even if India don’t go on to win the series, they would be satisfied with the fact that they threw Agarwal to the wolves and he came out leading the pack, with aplomb.