When going gets tough, Team India gets going and Perth Test is no different

How’s this for contrast? A measly 150 all out on day one , a commanding 172 without loss at close on day two . From the same team, hunted one morning, the hunter the next afternoon. Welcome to the world of Indian cricket.

Resilience has been the calling card of the national team for a long while, but from the time they bounced back from the debilitating depths of 36 all out against Australia in Adelaide in December 2020, they have made it a habit of bucking the odds. Their lowest Test score was to be the catalyst for their greatest overseas series triumph – maybe their greatest ever, possibly – and that has been an inspirational stepping-stone for many a success story subsequently.

As recently as at the start of this year, after a disappointing defeat to South Africa in Centurion in the last week of 2023, Mohammed Siraj fuelled a dramatic and immediate riposte in Cape Town. The Hyderabadi ripped the heart out of the Proteas on the first morning with six for 15, sending them crashing to 55 all out on a minefield and setting up a series-levelling seven-wicket triumph. The resounding message was – ‘Don’t mess with us’.

New Zealand did . They messed with India three times in the space of three weeks , having the impunity to do so on India’s own turf. For 12 years, India hadn’t lost a series at home. New Zealand cocked a snook at that outstanding record, consigning India to a whitewash in a series of more than two Tests for the first time. Ever. With generous help from the Indian think-tank, it must be said, because by laying out turners for the last two outings, they narrowed the yawning gulf between the spinners of the respective sides.

It was against this unprecedent, depressing backdrop that India landed in Australia in two batches nearly a fortnight back, seeking ways and means to extend their run of victories in a land once terrifying but no longer holding the same power of intimidation. There was pressure on the side – pressure to overturn a humiliating loss, pressure to hunt down World Test Championship points .

There was pressure on head coach Gautam Gambhir – pressure to deliver after a poor start to his stint that included an ODI series hammering in Sri Lanka in August, pressure to sustain the terrific work done by his two immediate predecessors, Rahul Dravid and Ravi Shastri.

As if all this wasn’t daunting enough, India had to embrace the reality that they would be without their talismanic skipper for the first Test. Rohit Sharma isn’t just the leader and the opener, he is the fulcrum around which the team revolves. He was away on paternity leave, India had to somehow dig deep to minimise the damage stemming from his absence.

Just when you though it couldn’t get worse, Shubman Gill, beginning to carve a niche for himself at No. 3, fell by the wayside, breaking his left thumb during an intra-squad match simulation exercise in the week leading into the first Test. Jasprit Bumrah, the stand-in skipper, and Gambhir had to scramble to fill the voids, so KL Rahul returned from being dropped for the last two Tests to link up at the top of the batting order with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal was plucked out of the India ‘A’ squad and asked to front up as the one-drop batter till Gill’s recovery was complete and total.

India had two debutants, the second time in as many Tests in Australia that eventuality transpired. If it was the Tamil Nadu duo of Washington Sundar and T Natarajan that played their first Tests in Brisbane in January 2021, then it was the turn of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana to receive their Test caps on Friday.

A hotch-potch, hastily put together XI? Sure. What else could you say when they were skittled for 150 within four hours of the start of the game, by Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh, on a surface that enhanced their command over pace and bounce and seam movement?

Ah, here we go again, the ‘knowledgeables’ tut-tutted, nodding sagely and exchanging knowing glances. Until Bumrah shattered their peace, rudely jolted them awake and exposed them to the new reality – write off India at your own peril.

Unbeatable Jasprit Bumrah

Bumrah is by a distance the best fast bowler in the world right now. Across formats. He is devastating, but it isn’t only his bowling that intimidates. It’s just his presence. The thought of Bumrah. The prospect of having to face up to him. The knowledge that he is lying in wait, various plans forming in his canny mind whose impeccable execution was just a matter of time.

Like Rohit, Bumrah is nothing if not inspirational and he needed less than an hour to lift his side, with three sticks in his first spell on Friday evening and an 11th Test five-for on Saturday morning. Despite making only 150, India therefore led by 46 after blasting Australia out. Nitish had led the way with the bat on day one while breezing to 41, Rana played excellent foil to his captain with the debutants having their say. Now, how about the batters standing up?

The KL Rahul-Yashasvi Jaiswal show

Why not, Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal countered. Rahul had been India’s best batter in the first innings until a cruel decision ended his sojourn. Jaiswal, a gathering storm, has showcased his adaptability more than once in his brief career. Opening together in Tests for the first time, they repelled Australia’s bowling group with a firm hand, leaving superbly on length, forcing the Aussies to bowl at them and then working the gaps on the large Optus outfield, only pulling out the big stroke when it was singularly free of risk.

By the end of Saturday, they had added 172 without being separated, the highest stand by any set of visiting openers since 1986, when Sunil Gavaskar and K Srikkanth put on 191 in Sydney. It was the third time Rahul had been involved in an opening century stand outside the subcontinent, each time with a different partner, after Rohit at Lord’s and Mayank Agarwal in Centurion, both in 2021. India’s first hundred opening stand in Australia since Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra put on 123 in Sydney in January 2004 means the visitors now have their noses well in front, 218 to the good with all ten wickets standing and three days left.

There’s plenty of cricket to be played yet on the variably-bounced Perth track, but Australia know they have a scrap on the hands. Not just over the next couple of days, but for six gruelling weeks thereafter too. Who would have thought that at tea-time on Friday, and 150 all out?