Mitchell Starc provided Australia a dream start by dismissing India opener Yashasvi Jaiswal on the first ball of the day-night Test at the Adelaide Oval on Friday. Sticking to India's bold approach of landing the first punch, captain Rohit Sharma, on his comeback from paternity leave, won the toss and had no hesitation to bat first despite the pink ball's notorious record of troubling the batters early on. Rohit made a huge sacrifice of sliding back to the middle order after more than six years to make sure the opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul was not disrupted. Jaiswal and Rahul had put on a record 200-plus partnership in India's second innings in Perth.
The build-up was there. The anticipation was high and Starc, not for the first time in his career, won the battle of nerves on the very first ball. Jaiswal thought Starc was "too slow" in Perth despite getting out to him for an 8-ball duck in the first innings. Starc said he did not even hear what the Indian opener had to say but agreed that young Jaiswal was the one for the future. The second chapter of Starc vs Jaiswal was with the pink ball, which is generally obedient to the Aussie pacers. In his first tryst with the pink ball, Jaiswal got first-hand proof of that.
It was full and swinging. On another day, Jaiswal would have stood still and flicked it off his pads to get off the mark with a boundary. But on Friday, he made the error of expecting an outswinger. So strong was his anticipation that went across his stumps, exposing his leg stump, almost like Rory Burns did to Starc in the first ball against Starc. In Jaiswal's case, the ball thudded onto his pads instead of rattling the leg stump. But the outcome was no different. Just like Burns, Jaiswal had to go back to the hut for a golden duck.
He had a brief chat with opening partner KL Rahul, but the experienced batter did the right thing by telling the youngster to continue on his march instead of wasting a review. There was no way he was going to get the decision changed. It was pitching in line, hitting in line and crashing onto the leg stump.
India make three changes, Australia bring Boland
India made three changes to their XI. Captain Rohit, No.3 Shubman Gill and veteran Ravichandran Ashwin came into the side in place of Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar.
Australia made one change with Scott Boland recalled to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood, who sustained a side strain while taking match figures of 5-57 from 34 overs in Australia’s heavy 295-run defeat in the first test.
Australia and India have met in only one day-night test previously – at the same venue in 2020, where India was bowled out for 36 runs in its second innings to lose by eight wickets.
It was India’s only loss in four pink-ball tests since 2019, having beaten Bangladesh, England and Sri Lanka at home.
Australia has played more pink ball tests than any other nation – 12 – and has lost only once, its most recent game against West Indies in Brisbane in January.
India has three changes, with Sharma returning in the middle order after India retained the opening pairing of KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal following their match-winning 201-run partnership in Perth.
Shubman Gill recovered from his thumb injury and returned at No. 3 in the order. Devdutt Padikkal and Dhruv Jurel miss out.
Offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin returned in place of Washington Sundar.
None of the 22 pink-ball tests to date have ended in a draw, and both sets of bowlers once again are expected to be on top. There is an even layer of grass on the Adelaide Oval surface, and it might favor batters from day two onwards.