Indian team and fans come roaring back on first day of Test series

The large Indian crowd found their voice from the first time hero fast-bowler Jasprit Bumrah beat the bat. By the end of day one, you could have mistaken the cauldron of Perth for that of Mumbai or Kolkata.

The Indian roar is very different to the Australian cheer that you hear around cricket grounds. It’s guttural. It’s raw. You feel it hit your skin, and even in your bones. It can at times knock you off your feet too if you are not careful.

Actually, that can also happen if you have the headphones on in the commentary box and there is Ravi Shastri’s voice booming through it from the middle at the toss.

An excited Aussie crowd sounds rather mellow in comparison. Yes, they can be noisy and boisterous, even a bit rowdy at times. The applause can get a bit thunderous. But never can it match the crescendo and the unbridled passion of a bunch of Indians screaming their lungs out, like their life depends on it.

Unlike the Aussie version, which has a bit of flow to it in terms of the volume going up and down, the Indian rumble is a constant. It never pauses or even halts. There’s no respite, especially if you’re the opposition.

The first day of the highly anticipated, highly touted, highly billed, Border-Gavaskar Trophy was the perfect blend between the Indian roar and the Australian cheer as Perth Stadium came alive on a mad day of Test cricket.

Jasprit Bumrah celebrates after dismissing Steve Smith lbw for a golden duck. Photo: Getty Images

It was the kind of day you’d expect two fast-bowling captains to script. Where the batters are made to look like nothing but mere prey, and the pacemen play around with them showing zero mercy like predators with ball in hand. That’s what it felt like anyway, firstly with Pat Cummins and his colleagues running roughshod over the inexperienced and largely make-shift Indian batting line-up, followed by Jasprit Bumrah producing one of the most scintillating and devastating spells of fast bowling ever seen on Australian soil.

And if the soundtrack to the first two sessions of the day were largely centred around the thousands of Aussie voices cheering on the home team, it was the roar of India that echoed around the stadium, along with large parts of Western Australia maybe for the last two and a half hours of play.

So much so that you could have mistaken the cauldron of Perth for that of Mumbai or Kolkata, as Indian voices rose in intensity and stayed at fever-pitch from the moment Bumrah beat the bat for the first time to when he did so for the last time on Friday.

Even as he tore through the Australian batting line-up, knocking out Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith in consecutive deliveries after having given Nathan McSweeney a baptism by fire a bit earlier.

Often in India, we talk about how when an Indian bowler takes wickets in quick succession, the crowd is partly credited with the second one because of the atmosphere of intimidation they create for the incoming batter. And you could sense that in the way Smith was knocked over first ball, as he overbalanced and was struck on the pads right in front of the stumps.

Mohammed Siraj celebrates the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne. Photo: AFP

Even if he’s probably by now used to walking out to bat in front of a crowd that sounds and feels mainly Indian. And by the time, Marnus Labuschagne fell late in the day, trapped lbw by Mohammad Siraj, even the visuals around the ground starting feeling very Indian as the tri-colour flags were being waved furiously in every corner of a mostly filled-up stadium.

To welcome the Indian summer, Cricket Australia had pulled out all stops on and off the field for the fans, with food stalls, and dance stages and other attractions to cater to the Indian diaspora at the back of the stadium. And full credit to them for putting the effort too.

Not that many of the Indian fans would have spent too much time there. That’s not how Indians watch cricket after all. When they’re at a cricket ground, the action in front of them takes precedence.

It’s not a social event. It’s only about coming together and letting the Indian players know how much they mean to you, in as vocal and loud fashion as possible. And not like anyone was prepared to budge from their seat when Bumrah was on fire. Like always, it was pure theatre.

This is not to say that they had to wait till the last session to clear their throats completely. There were moments earlier on too, despite the team’s collapse in the first innings. Like when Virat Kohli walked out to bat, as is the norm.

You need to have thick skin after all as a No. 3 or an opener for India, considering the raucous reactions that follow you getting dismissed, just because the No. 4 who walks out is the one they all came to see most. It was the same with Sachin Tendulkar, and even if Virat might not be at his peak anymore, the excitement around his arrival at the crease hasn’t changed yet. It would have only got louder if their star batter had stayed for longer, but it wasn’t to be.

Rishabh Pant hits Pat Cummins for a six while falling to the ground. Picture: Getty

The loudest roar of the afternoon though came when Rishabh Pant pulled out his latest new single from his outrageous shots selection, by ramping Cummins for six while falling to the ground and then rolling over. At that point, despite India’s precarious position in the contest, it felt like that shot itself was worth all the hype that had surrounded this series in the lead-up to it.

The only times the Aussie section of the crowd even found their voice was ironically when they sounded unhappy with the decision around KL Rahul’s catch in the slips off Mitchell Marsh, as loud boos sounded all around the ground, even if there was nothing wrong with the catch or its legitimacy. Not for the first time in recent years, the Indian fans and their unrelenting energy had taken over.

You can always sense how a day of Test cricket has played out when you hear passing remarks from fans as they walk past you after the day’s play. And while the Indian cross-section were still in great form, letting you know their team is in front, the home team supporters looked a little shellshocked.

The blue jerseys will be back en masse once again on Saturday, playing their drums and singing their songs in that uninhibited fashion that is so singularly Indian. The question is can the Aussies find their voice amidst the Indian roar, both on and off the field.