India loses 7 wickets for 11, all out for 105 versus Australia

The 3 highlight performances by Mitchell Starc, Steve O’Keefe and the skipper Steven Smith outclassed India absolutely.

The shell-shocked hosts have a week to regroup before they again engage an Australian touring party which made Virat Kohli and his team of world-beaters look quite ordinary in a 333-run first test rout inside three days.

Sunil Gavaskar suggested India’s shambolic collapses highlighted an incentive system that was pushing players towards Twenty20 cricket instead of Tests. On the one hand, Australian spinners didn’t give an inch – a simple conclusion made from India’s struggling scoring rate in both innings. The dropped chances came when he was on 23, 29, 37 and 67.

WICKET! Jadeja takes Smith, caught plumb in front of wicket. “And we’ve got to be ready for it”.

Renshaw, who set foot in India for the first time a week ago, has demonstrated a ton of guts in a pulsating first Test in Pune. Conceding a 160-run lead (155-run lead) on that kind of wicket is criminal actually.

In the Pune Test, Kohli kept persisting with the inexperienced Jayant Yadav at the start of the Aussie innings on day one even though Jadeja had a far better record against left-hand batsmen.

The day began with India wrapping up Australia’s first innings for 260 in the first over of the day, Mitchell Starc holing out in the deep off Ravichandran Ashwin after adding only four to his overnight 57.

Before lunch, Starc (2-38) pegged back the host with a double strike.

Captain Virat Kohli (13) and Cheteshwar Pujara (31) then put on 31 runs for the third wicket, before O’Keefe bowled the Indian skipper in the 17th over, as he shouldered arms to a straight delivery that knocked back his off-stump. Murali Vijay (10) was dismissed by Josh Hazlewood in his first over. At least that’s the impression one got after reading the comments of former India spinner Harbhajan Singh, who said if the Aussies play well enough, they might lose 3-0 rather than being whitewashed.

“He’s a tough cookie, Matt. Hats off to him”, O’Keefe said.

The drama overshadowed Renshaw’s valuable contribution at the top of the order.

Mitch Marsh was unbeaten on 21, boosting his side’s bid to snap a nine-Test losing streak in Asia. That yard is now worth 298 runs with three days to play. The pupil followed the master’s instructions and changed the course of the match with figures of 6-5 in 25 balls. That pushed us back and there were a couple soft dismissals as well. Despite Pune pitch being a rank turner, it was Indian batsmen who lacked the intent to play a longer innings, they threw caution out in the wind and displayed a careless behaviour throwing their wickets away.

The left-arm spinner picked up a career-best 6/35 and his first five-for.

“Then coming back it was probably a bit unusual for me waiting to bat because as an opener you just go straight out there and bat”.

“From what I remember of him then, he had a good shape in his bowling and was a keen listener and learner, (but) at that stage he was a better batsman than a bowler”.