Australia vs India 2018-19, 1st Test: 5 talking points from Day 2

#2. Indian pacers rising to the occasion

Ishant exhibited control to pick wickets upfront

If Day 1 saw the Australian pace bowlers putting in a disciplined, clockwork-like effort, the day that followed was mostly about Indians returning the favor.

In the beginning, it was all Ishant Sharma, who cleaned up Aaron Finch for nought off just the third ball of the Aussie innings. It was a length ball that dipped inwards, and Finch tried to chase his Indian counterparts via the "driving" route. The ball caught his bat's inside edge and deviated to clip the middle and leg stumps.

Though the pace department's next scalp came 57 overs later, they then proceeded to remove a couple of more wickets before the day's play ended.

Ishant and Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets apiece, bowling down 15 and 20 overs respectively at economy rates even lower than Australia's run rate. Apart from the important wickets of Finch, Pete Handscomb and Tim Paine, the duo also helped in restricting the Aussie batsmen's freedom to score runs, by bowling consistently at a very neat line and length.

Only Mohammad Shami went wicketless, and he also conceded just a bit more than 3 runs per over, which is not bad in the general scheme of things. In fact, Shami's line and length played a significant role in upsetting the batsmen as the bowlers kept being shuffled around, and so did their lengths.