Konstas flicked switch, now to walk his talk
Australia’s rookie opener struck a nerve in India’s premier fast bowler that not even seasoned Bumrah watchers knew existed.
Sam Konstas is playing with fire. Why would he annoy the best fast bowler in the world so much as to get him fired up? To flick a switch that probably even Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t aware existed in him. That too with just two deliveries in the day’s play.
This is not to blame the teenager for his opening partner Usman Khawaja playing back to a full delivery and getting nicked off by Bumrah. But the Indian captain, who at best smiles at the opponent after knocking him out, ended up reacting in snarly fashion, taking a few steps in anger towards Konstas, before letting out a bellowing roar that echoed around the SCG.
It was the kind of inspired ending the Indians desperately needed after having once again failed to give themselves the early running in a Test that they’ve batted first in. And of course, it had to come from Bumrah, who’s now either batted or bowled on each day of this incredible Border Gavaskar Trophy series, in which he’s probably been the most influential player.
However, despite the dramatic finish, which we have got used to this summer, it was still Australia’s day overall. It was the kind of day that those of us who grew up elsewhere would imagine Test cricket to be like in Australia. Especially at this late stage of a long series, with the visiting team seemingly with one foot on the flight back home.
For, during large periods of the day’s play, India did look a bit jaded and a bit fatigued with bat in hand. Even as a marauding Australian team ran through them with their tails up, leaving the visitors battered and bruised, quite literally. The Indian physio must have run out on at least a dozen occasions through the day’s play. From tending to biceps, necks, forearms, midriff and even the nether regions. Mainly most of the attention was bestowed on Rishabh Pant, who did bat the longest for India.
It had all the elements of that rather familiar narrative. You could have easily imagined the series scoreline having been 3-0 or 4-0. And not 2-1, with the series still alive and India still with a very live opportunity to draw level in Sydney and take the Border Gavaskar Trophy back with them, denying Australia a chance to win it back for the first time in 10 years.
The man who summed up Australia’s dominance on the third day of the new year was the relentless Scott Boland. There’s a special roar that welcomes Scotty at the ’G. And even if the one that greeted his arrival to the bowling crease wasn’t as rowdy as the one on his home-ground, the SCG did get to its feet in unison when Boland got his hands on the ball for the first time on Friday.
It took him four deliveries to break open the game as he does repeatedly on these shores. Like the great Glenn McGrath used to, match after match. Yashasvi Jaiswal was the one he got rid off first-up. Boland could have had two wickets in his very first over. If not for a contentious call from third umpire Joel Wilson.
Boland then did get two wickets in the same over. Like he’s done before. Like he continues to do so often when Australia most need him to.
Virat Kohli might have got away with being nicked off the first ball he faced, but Boland came back to get his man, just when the premier batter seemed to have settled into his innings. It was a lovely length delivery that deviated off the surface and had Kohli poking at it. It was more an injudicious shot from Pant, not his first for the series, that enabled Boland to break the game again before he added MCG centurion Nitish Kumar Reddy to his tally a ball later.
This was classic Boland. This was classical Australia on home soil. Ruthless and dominant.
To boot, there was also a debutant who settled into his role without doing anything extravagant. There was nothing special about what Beau Webster did on the field in his first outing in a baggy green – except that he did it with ease. He snaffled two excellent catches at slip, the second a sharp one to his left to get rid of Kohli, enhancing his reputation as being the best slip catcher in the country. And he bowled 13 very frugal overs, managing to bottle up India’s batsmen.
There was plenty on offer from the green SCG pitch, sporting a new kind of lively Tahoma grass, and the Aussies were all over the Indians, barely giving their batters room to break free. Once again, Australia on home turf as I knew it. As we all knew it.
It was attritional cricket, even if at times the attrition seemed forced, from Pant in particular, as if it was in response to all the chatter that’s emerged from the Indian dressing-room in the past few days since the MCG defeat. There was a stringent focus on caution, like he was following a new team approach, that had been laid down in the absence of the tour captain, Rohit Sharma, who was on the bench after having interestingly “opted to rest” in the deciding Test of this big series. It was also probably the perfect start to a vital year for Australian Test cricket.
Pat Cummins and his team will have the potential chance to defend the World Test Championship title at Lord’s followed by three Tests in the Caribbean, which will then lead into the Ashes against the Bazballing English. Four of those Tests will be played in this calendar year, which promises to be one of transition, with the look of the team expected to change along the way, with Konstas likely to be at the centre of it.
As for Friday, it could have been an even better start, if only Konstas had left Bumrah alone. Just maybe. At least, Konstas is still there to walk his talk. He will have to. For, a switch has been flicked for Bumrah. And he’ll be looking to take it out on the Aussies.
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