Despite losing opener Usman Khawaja, Australia won the opening day of the second Test on Friday in Adelaide as India collapsed to 180 all out thanks to a Mitchell Starc assault.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, the visitors were removed just before tea, leaving the hosts at 86-1 with Nathan McSweeney not out at 38 from 97 balls and Marnus Labuschagne at 20.
India’s main destroyer was a threatening Starc.
After dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal with the opening delivery of the match, he gave the hosts a fantastic start and finished with his best Test total of 6-48.
Before Jasprit Bumrah’s perseverance paid off, he found extra movement and a thick edge from Khawaja (13) that carried to Rohit Sharma at slip after Australia withstood 10 overs of the pink ball at sunset.
Before being dropped by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, fellow opener McSweeney needed 17 balls to get off the ground and had a life on three.
While Labuschagne overcame a nervous start to go for a high score during a lean spell, he made the most of his luck and displayed maturity in his second Test.
Australia has a strong record in Adelaide, having won all seven of its pink-ball Test matches there, but India entered the match on a high note following a 295-run triumph at the first Test in Perth.
Instead of Rohit, who arrived at six and missed the first Test due to paternity leave, the visitors kept Jaiswal and KL Rahul as openers.
However, the strategy backfired when Starc spectacularly got Jaiswal leg before wicket off a swinging first delivery, and the left-armer’s ecstatic reaction demonstrated how much it meant.
In his most recent innings, Jaiswal scored 161.
Then, in a thrilling opening over, the comebacking Shubman Gill hit two boundaries.
Rahul remained at the crease for forty minutes without scoring when he was dismissed after being caught behind off Scott Boland, but the runs stopped coming.
Rahul was about to leave when a no-ball was called, but he managed to live.
Khawaja dropped him five balls later, giving him another let-off.
Unfazed, he continued to fight until McSweeney held a catch low at Gully and Starc used his wizardry once more to dismiss him for 37.
With an undefeated century in Perth, Virat Kohli returned to form, but this time Starc was too strong for him, as he was dismissed for seven after Steve Smith caught a slip catch.
Gill persevered through the rain, but he lost to the unrelenting Boland lbw on 31 just before the first break.
In the second session, Rohit (3) and Pant (21) were among the six wickets that fell.
Pant should have gone for five, but McSweeney spilled a sharp chance in the gully off Boland, in the side for the injured Josh Hazlewood.
Four balls later, however, the 35-year-old got his reward when he caught Rohit leg before wicket by thumping his bat.
After Pant was hit by a wicked ascending ball from Pat Cummins, an angry Starc came back and dismissed Harshit Rana (0) and Ravichandran Ashwin (22) in four balls.
Nitish Kumar Reddy seized charge when India was struggling, hitting two massive sixes in a single Boland over to reach his highest Test score of 42 before he and Bumrah were out by Cummins and Starc, respectively.
