5th over: India 15-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 14) I can’t stop Gill from scoring! On the rise, but he leans into a cover drive with minimal follow-through and hits it perfectly. Risk in the shot, but it gets him four. There is also a Starc overstep in the over.

4th over: India 10-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 10) Cummins makes the ball sing again! Hits over the edge a few times. But KL picks up where he left off in Perth, letting the balls pass him without chasing them, leaving the safer, wider balls and defending where he can. Absorb the quality early.

Rowan Sweeney edits spontaneously. “Last summer seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity to bring in new talent and this series could be a bit brutal for Australia. I choose Jaiswal to do something different Then it doesn’t matter. How’s your day going, Geoff?”

This game took a long time to get started, but I’m glad it’s starting.

3rd over: India 10-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 10) Starc looks to continue and almost catches Gill with a rising ball from a tight angle, but Gill fails to get past him. Drives a clamp and opens the face through the cover. Such a prolific goalscorer, even under pressure.

Andrew Benton sends an email. “Have Australia reset/restarted in the last ten days and if so, how?” Do they have a new game plan, have they made some tweaks to win? Wicket. Oh. That’s what they do and have done.”

Well, they got Jaiswal for a duck in the first innings in Perth too and it didn’t help them much when he made a huge throw in the second innings.

2nd over: India 8-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 8) Cummins will share the new ball, Hazlewood is out. And he cuts KL Rahul in half with a ball that saws in from outside the off-stump, Rahul rips the bat across and finally brings it into the line of the seam.

That’s 35 Tests that started with one wicket. Starc and Pedro Collins are the frontrunners with three instances. Twice for Geoff Arnold, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev and Suranga Lakmal.

1st over: India 8-1 (Rahul 0, Gill 8) So Shubman Gill needs to open up effectively and he does so by cutting through the gully for four! Might have carried to a catcher, but it’s in the gap. Then, as Starc makes a fuller pitch, he is driven through the middle for another ball. Quite an eventful start.

This is the third time Starc has taken a wicket with the first ball of the game. Rory Burns of course at the Gabba and when he took on Big Frank – Dimuth Karunaratne – during the 2016 Sri Lanka tour.

The first player to do this was Arthur Coningham, who had a fascinating, troubled life. We did a Story Time podcast about him if you want to find out.

WICKET! Jaiswal lbw Starc 0

We are on the way…

The anthems, then Tim May rings the opening bell. A name in keeping with this soil and South Australia. Was a good bowler for Australia, making 42 runs in the one-run loss to West Indies on this ground and winning the Shield final here in his last first-class match.

Harbhajan Singh and Ricky Ponting carry out the trophy together. Memories of Harbhajan tormenting Ponting in 2001. His streak went 0, 6, 0, 0, 11, and during the 11 he was reset to 0.

The pitch, you’re all crying. What about the pitch? It looks decent. Not as grassy as some in previous years. The curators here now trust that the pink ball will retain its shine so that they don’t leave behind the lush foliage of the early years. This stripe has a few shading around the edges, but is straw colored in the business section. However, the grass here turns this color while it is still alive, so the bowlers may have some grip and it can move sideways a little. And then there is the hope of momentum. We’ll see.

teams

India wins the toss and the bat

Get in touch

When it comes to India, there are so many avenues one could take. We now know that KL Rahul will remain the opener and Rohit Sharma will bat “somewhere in the middle”, as he announced at his captain’s press conference yesterday. So Dhruv Jurel is the omission that would account for this. Devdutt Padikkal will be the right man for Shubman Gill if they make this move at No.3.

Bowling is more interesting for me. Ravichandran Ashwin has 536 Test wickets. Ravindra Jadeja has 319. Both were left out in Perth for Washington Sundar, who has 24 wickets. And yes, he batted well, but India’s great spinners can bat both too. So they have to give Ashwin a chance in Adelaide? It’s criminal to keep him on the bench.

Young all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has probably done enough to retain his place, perhaps at number 7, but for the quicks: Jasprit Bumrah is definitely playing, Mohammad Siraj should be, although you never know what India’s selection bets may be , and the main question is whether he might prefer Akash Deep’s swing over Harshit Rana’s pace and swing, which worked well in Perth but might have been a choice given the conditions.

How about a preview? I wrote one yesterday focusing on the Australian bowlers, let’s have that.

preamble

Geoff Lemon