BORDER GAVASKAR TROPHY, 2024-25

An old ghost joins the horror flick cast to haunt India

The centurions put on 241 for the fourth wicket.
The centurions put on 241 for the fourth wicket. ©AFP

It started with Mohammad Siraj. Then Marnus Labuschagne followed suit before Rishabh Pant performed the final swap. It was both bizarre and weird. Not to forget also uncalled. It's safe to say between the three of them, Siraj, Labuschagne and Pant also created a bit of unnecessary history. Probably the most number of bail swaps within the same over ever.

Siraj kicked things off by running past Labuschagne in his follow-through, going nose to nose with Australia's No 3 momentarily before flipping the bails at the batting end around. He didn't do the best job either, dropping one of them as he tried to fit them in the groove on top of the stumps. Not to be bested, Labuschagne had flipped them right back by the time Siraj walked past the umpire at his end. The next delivery, the last for the over, was largely uneventful as Labuschagne drove a fullish delivery into the point region. And as he walked over to have a mid-pitch chat with Steve Smith, Pant had swapped the bails again to the Siraj-inspired configuration.

Though the impact of this bail drama wasn't as immediate as Stuart Broad in his final Test last year, Siraj and Pant could argue that it worked as Labuschagne was nicked off with the next delivery he faced, even if it was at the other end, to a tempter from Nitish Kumar Reddy outside off-stump.

Interestingly, none of the Indians bothered flipping the bails around thereafter. None of them bothered to try anything that could alter their fate or the state of the match. None of them bothered to try any trick that could help them flip the script. For most parts, it looked like and was pretty evident that none of them bothered, period.

They simply held back and surrendered to Travis Head, yet again. Probably in even more hapless fashion than they were in Adelaide.

For, what is it that India could have done to stop Head.

They put the deep point on the fence, he stayed upright and swatted the bowlers over the slip region towards the vacant third region. They put a man at third, and he bent down and swatted them away through extra cover. They put a ring field square on the off-side, and he just penetrated the cordon by hitting the ball harder. They bounced at him, he wristed them over slips. They kept a third man and bounced again; he sent it wide of that man, and just for variety, he bashed a pull to long-leg boundary.

This was like a horror flick that they're now used to being terrorised by being played out again. A box-office franchise show that's haunted them for nearly 18 months. And this time around, he wasn't even alone.

An old ghost returned to haunt them in a fashion that many previous Indian bowling attacks have unfortunately withered.

It was another classic example of the affect that Head has on his teammates.

Not surprisingly, Smith would compare their 241-run partnership on Sunday to the world Test championship. "Had a great seat in the house to watch Travis go about his business again. It felt a lot like the WTC final in a way. The way he came out and smashed it, and I could take second fiddle and do my thing. It was a good day."

It was certainly a great day but even the second fiddle was fascinating to watch. WTC wasn't the same thing though as it was old Steve Smith, who had never had any problems with scoring runs. This, though, is a man who hasn't scored a hundred for a year-and-a-half. And the last two Tests too hadn't gone his way. But he was brave enough to make a significant tweak to his game. He opened-up in his stance in his trigger position, allowing him greater access to the leg side. But the danger was whether he could lead to any looseness outside off stump. And it did emerge in the initial phase as he was every now and then beaten outside off by Akash Deep, one of the great positives for India on the day.

But slowly as he grew more comfortable with his game, his game tightened up a lot. From prodding and pushing around carefully, he started to ease into his drives and whips. At that point, India turned clueless, almost like they were with Head.

It didn't help Rohit Sharma that a couple of his bowlers weren't quite there on the day. Ravindra Jadeja, the man who was surprisingly picked over R Ashwin and Washington Sundar, couldn't find his rhtym. The pitch didn't aid him, but the very least that was expected of him was lines and lengths. He must have been selected for the ability to hold an end but that control eluded him. And Head and Smith toyed around with him.

Siraj too struggled with a slight niggle on his left thigh in the first session, and then couldn't really inject any venom in his bowling. He did try a phase of bouncers against Head, but that didn't work. Nitish Reddy's bowling wasn't suited for the conditions. And Rohit had no one else to turn to but yet again to Bumrah and Akash. Finally respite arrived with the second new ball, and Bumrah produced a stirring spell again to take out Smith, Mitch Marsh and Head. Just as India might have hoped for a quick end, Alex Carey rallied Australia with a fine counter-attacking knock as Australia closed the day after taking total control.

India will likely hope the weather forecast holds up and the rains intervene at some point in this Test, but it remains to be seen. Only certainty at this point is that Indians have no answer to Head and now that Smith has also found a way, they are up against it not just in this game but need to find a way out in the rest of the series.

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