Australia's wrecker-in-chief Josh Hazlewood feels the touring Indian side will leave Adelaide after their horrible collapse to 36 all out in the first Test with a few major "headaches" around the batting, especially as their skipper and premier batsman Virat Kohli returns home on paternity leave.
Hazlewood (5/8) combined brilliantly on Day 3 with fellow quick Pat Cummins (4/21) and they proved largely unplayable for the Indian batsmen in the second innings.
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The duo led Australia's fightback after conceding a 53-run lead at the halfway mark and bundled out the Indians for their lowest-ever score in the history of Test cricket to set-up a comfortable win for the home team.
"Getting bowled out for 36 is going to leave a few headaches here and there and their best batter (Virat) is leaving as well, it is going to leave a bit of whole," Hazlewood said at the post-match press conference, as quoted by PTI.
"...But they have got plenty of class batters on the side-lines to come in, not of Virat's class. But in terms of the series, it is great to be one up, it is better than being one-down, as we found out last time."
The hosts took a 1-0 lead over the injury-hit visitors for the series, but Hazlewood urged his teammates to not drop their guard at any stage.
"It is probably a fresh start to a degree for the batters and bowlers, and they have a player coming for Virat and they have got some class players on the bench to be honest, so good players are going to come in and we will have some plans for (them) no doubt," he added.
Yet, it's felt the Indians now have too far a bridge to gap with the hosts as reports emerge that they might also lose pacer Mohammad Shami for the series with a fractured hand. Shami was forced to retire after being hit on his hand while batting against Cummins and was taken for scans afterwards.
On asked whether this could give Australians a psychological advantage, Hazlewood said, "It is obviously a blow (Shami's injury), we don't know how bad it is yet, we will wait and find out how much damage has been done."
"But he (Shami) is a class bowler and he has shown in this game, so they might have to dig deep in their arsenal to cover him but we probably expect him to play. I am not too sure how bad it is, to be honest."
Hazlewood echoed the sentiments shared by Cummins that it was a day where "everything came off" for them as a bowling unit.
"Probably I can't put a finger on when but I looked up and it might have been 6/20 and you have (Cheteshwar) Pujara and (Virat) Kohli both out, it was sort of just the tail to come, so around that time you thought something special was going," said Hazlewood.
"We just didn't let up. It was just one of those days when everything went to plan, we kept putting it in on that spot and the nicks kept coming. It happened so quickly, it was over before we knew it."
On a day where the first ball that moved off the length took the edge, Hazlewood said they didn't actually do anything different with the ball to what they did in the first half.
The fast bowler, however, felt this was a performance similar in perfection to the one in Headingley Test of the last year's Ashes where they dismissed the England batting line-up for just 67 in the first innings.
"I am not too sure, to be honest. It was pretty similar to may be Leeds, looking back to the Ashes, we got them out for 60-odd but I don't think we changed a great deal from the first innings, we just bowled a touch fuller and I guess maybe a touch straighter," he said.
"I thought Cummo (Pat Cummins) set the scene beautifully and I sort of just followed suit, but everything got nicked and everything went into the hands, one of those days."
The Indians were 62 runs ahead at the start of play on Saturday (December 19) and looking in ascendency. But Hazlewood said after initially feeling "stunned" about it, the Aussies were quickly able to calm themselves down.
"We're probably a bit stunned, but probably a bit more stunned when we came off from bowling. The mood didn't change too much throughout the whole game to be fair. I know we were behind by 50 (53) after the first innings, but there was a calmness amongst us."
"I can probably speak for the bowling group in saying that we thrive on those situations when we're a little bit behind and it's up to us to change the momentum of the game, and that's what we did today," he signed off.
