‘Taking a bullet for your country’: Indian rookie’s defiance as Starc shoots down Perth claim

An emerging Indian talent has revealed he was advised to brace for Australian bouncers as though he was preparing to take a bullet for his country after an astonishing opening day of the Border Gavaskar Trophy series.

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While star Australian bowler Mitchell Starc scorched suggestions the Perth Stadium pitch was unplayable on Friday, a staggering 17 wickets fell as India claimed the upper-hand on the first day of the five Test series.

Starc, who snared the opening wicket of the series when removing talented Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, will resume on six not out alongside wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who is unbeaten on 19, on Saturday, with Australia 7-83 after India made 150 in its first innings.

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A record crowd for a Test match at Perth Stadium of 31,302 witnessed a historic moment in the Western Australian capital, with the 17 dismissals surpassing the previous most wickets to fall on an opening day in the city.

The previous record was 14 wickets when Australia defeated Pakistan at the WACA in a Test in 1999, but 25 years later a new mark was set when local gun Mitch Marsh was caught by KL Rahul in the slips off a Mohammed Siraj delivery in the 17th over.

It itself, the dismissal was bizarre, for Siraj lost his shoe on the delivery crease and the umpires then needed to wait for a review to determine whether the ball had bounced before reaching Rahul. But it was that type of day as the fast bowlers wrought havoc.

In the previous opening days of the four Tests played at Perth Stadium prior to this series, 17 wickets fell in total for a tally of 1146 runs. On Friday, 17 wickets fell for 217 runs as initially the Australian attack and then Indian skipper Jasprit Bumrah wreaked havoc.

But Starc, who finished with 2-14 from 11 overs but was somehow outperformed by Josh Hazlewood (4-29 from 13 overs) and Bumrah (4-17 from 10 overs), challenged suggestions that batting conditions across Australia were becoming harder.

“How many ways can use skin a cat? Bowlers are allowed to bowl good balls,” he said.

“When there’s a lot of runs, it’s like, ‘Oh, the bowlers bowled badly. When there’s wickets, the wickets are tough.’ (But) you are allowed to bowl good balls and maybe credit should go to both teams and bowlers.

“Sure, there’s plenty in the wicket when you put it in the right area and it was hard work for batting, but as I said, you’re allowed to bowl good balls and there were plenty of those today.”

Nitish Kumar Reddy, who was one of two Indian debutants alongside Harshit Rana, defied the avalanche of wickets when top-scoring for the day with 41 before falling to Australian skipper Pat Cummins.

Reddy was selected for the Test on the basis of his deeds for India A in the recent series against Australia A in Mackay and at the MCG and believes those outings prepared him for the challenging conditions in Perth.

He said Indian coach Gautam Gambhir had advised him to brace for a barrage from the Australian bowlers in Perth and Reddy approached his debut innings with a determined demeanour.

“Even I heard a lot about Perth and I still remember the last practice we were having and after the practice, I had a chat with Gautam Sir and he was mentioning (that) when you get any bouncers, or something like that, sharp spells, you just take it on your shoulders,” he said.

“(He said) ‘Just feel like you are taking a bullet for your country’. That really helped me a lot. Like that just boosted me up. The Perth wicket, everyone was talking like there is a good bounce in this wicket (and) when he said that thing, and I felt like (I) needed to take bullets for (my) country. That’s the best thing I have heard from Gautam Sir.”

Reddy believes India has the upper-hand given their lead and the fact the Australian tail is exposed. Starc feels the game is wide open and that if batters can survive the new ball, it is likely to become easier to score as the Kookaburra softens.

“I think there was a fair bit of good bowling today. Obviously there was enough in the wicket and it probably felt like it was a hardball wicket,” Starc said.

“When the ball started to get a little bit softer towards the the back end of that Indian innings, it probably didn’t do as much. (There was) still enough there, but it didn’t do as much as the brand new hardball. So I guess that’s something for teams to take in the second innings. “If you can get through the testing period, it does get slightly easier. That being said, the outfield is quite slow, so that probably made runs a bit hard to come by. That’s probably the slowest outfield we’ve seen over in the west for a long time.”