Australia vs India, 3rd Test, Day 1: Despite the slow run rate, India has edged ahead on a deceptive MCG pitch

As India won the toss and elected to bat, the make-shift opening pair of Mayank Agarwal and Hanuma Vihari made slow and steady progress. The opening pair contributed 40 runs in 19 overs and the run rate hovered around two and a half runs for the entire day.

India ended the day at 215 runs with two wickets down. Though the run-rate was certainly on the slower side, the fact that they lost only two wickets with a lot of batting to follow, meant India were certainly the happier side at stumps.

For much of the day, the commentators, especially the Australians continued lamenting on the state of the pitch. Even in his assessment of the pitch after the end of proceedings on the first day, former Australian Captain Allan Border expressed his displeasure about a “disappointing” pitch that according to him had precious little for the bowlers.

However, the second new ball show from Australia proves the MCG pitch is not as docile as is made out to be by the commentators. When Australia took the second new ball in the 83rd over, there were two set batsmen at the crease, in the form of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Puajara.

However, in the remaining seven overs, the two Aussie bowlers, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood caused the two Indian batsmen all sorts of problems. There were balls that shot off from a good length and either thudded into Paine’s gloves or went over his head.

The batsmen were beaten by the bounce and at times, lack of bounce, which showed that the pitch has natural variation. If at all, the pitch seems to have quickened up over the day and that is certainly not good news for Australia.

The fifth over with the second new ball from Starc to Kohli was especially eventful. A well-set Kohli got beaten by the pace, bounce and swing from Starc multiple times, and was lucky to survive thanks to a drop from Paine.

As Sunil Gavaskar pointed out, if India can manage a four hundred plus score, then they will certainly be in the driver’s seat. As things stand now, India are in a position to do so, and with the natural variation on offer in the MCG pitch, they can certainly take the match by the scruff of the neck.