India vs Australia 4th Test, Day 1: Debutant T Natarajan shines as Australia score 274/5 courtesy Marnus Labuschagne. India giving a good Fight back but Australia still manages to hold Edge In Brisbane On Day 1
The Tamil Nadu Boy Thangarasu Natarajan born 27 May 1991 (age 29 years), Salem got better with his twin strikes on debut headlining a commendable effort from an inexperienced Indian bowling attack, which reduced Australia to 274 for 5 despite a stylish hundred from Marnus Labuschagne on the opening day of the final between India vs Australia.
India vs Australia Changes :
Along with T. Natarajan, Washington Sundar also made his debut while there were also recalls for batsman Mayank Agarwal and seam bowler Shardul Thakur
Talking about Australia, they only made one change, with Harris coming in for Will Pucovski, who injured his shoulder while fielding in Sydney.
An under-strength India fought back in the final session to leave the fourth Test between India vs Australia evenly poised after the opening day at the Gabba in Brisbane on Friday
After 87 overs, the two Tamil Nadu rookies Natarajan (20-2-63-2) and Washington Sundar (2-4-63-1) could hold their heads high for a lion-hearted effort on a good batting pitch in the absence of the injured Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah.
Yet India got away to the perfect start when David Warner fell on the last ball of the first over, edging Siraj to second slip, where Rohit Sharma took a superb catch diving to his right.
Natarajan shared the new ball with Siraj and kept the pressure on with some tight bowling, his opening spell of six overs going for just eight runs.
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India vs Australia Day 1 : The tall off-spinner Washington Sundar set up a nice little trap to get rid of Steve Smith (36 off 77 balls), Natarajan forced centurion Labuschagne (108 off 204 balls) and Matthew Wade (47 off 85 balls) to miscue their pull-shots after a 113-run stand which threatened to put India in a spot.
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Getting Labuschagne, who was on a rampage, with a short delivery ensured that Australia didn’t finish the day with a score close to 350.For someone, who was supposed to be a net bowler, India’s Test Cap No 300, did well enough on the first day between India vs Australia, despite not exactly being a natural. He also knows that he doesn’t have the express pace to trouble batsmen (his average speed is 130 plus).
The inexperience Shardul Thakur (18-5-67-1) bowled a lot of full pitched deliveries which Labuschagne pounced on in the second and third sessions during an innings that had nine boundaries. If all the injuries weren’t enough, Navdeep Saini (7.5 overs) now seems to be in trouble as he has sustained a groin niggle moments after his skipper Ajinkya Rahane dropped a dolly at gully when Labuschagne was on 37.
Cheteshwar Pujara grassed a much harder chance when Labuschagne was on 48, but from that moment the Queenslander was in fine form, stroking nine boundaries and two all-run fours on his way to his century.
By far, Australia’s most consistent batsman in the series, Labuschagne batted in two gears during the day. In the first session, he faced 82 balls and sedately moved to 19 but in the next 113 balls, scored another 82 runs to reach his fifth hundred in 195 balls.
He trusted the bounce, hit some lovely drives and was also ready to pull anything that was short straight into Rohit’s hands just few minutes after the lunch. Having lost four of their key players (Bumrah, Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Hauma Vihari) due to various injuries, Rahane couldn’t have lost a worst toss as Tim Paine elected to bat.
The new-look Indian bowling line-up between India vs Australia kept it steady at the onset removing openers David Warner and Marcus Harris in the first session. It could be seen that Warner, after his groin injury, was still finding it difficult to stretch his front-foot and get to the pitch of the delivery.
Siraj was the pick of the Indian attack with 1-51 off 19 testing overs, while Natarajan (2-63) also impressed despite showing signs of fatigue late in the day.
At stumps between India vs Australia, Tim Paine (38) and Cameron Green (28) had added 61 runs for the sixth wicket and the visitors would need a few quick wickets to keep the first innings total within a manageable range.
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