After India’s dominant showing on Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test at MCG, batting legend Ricky Ponting praised visiting skipper Ajinkya Rahane for his shrewd tactics that brought about three Australian wickets.
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Leading India in the absence of Virat Kohli, Rahane used a leg slip for his seam, spin bowlers and the likes of Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Tim Paine fell into that trap.
Smith and Paine were caught at leg slip off Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling while Labuschagne flicked a full ball on his pads from debutant Mohammed Siraj to Shubman Gill.
"(Rahane's captaincy) has been brilliant so far. We were all a bit worried about how they were going to pick themselves up after Adelaide. I think they looked potentially better today (under Rahane’s leadership),” Ponting told cricket.com.au.
"Rahane's field placements, bowling changes have all been pretty much spot on. With captaincy, making bowling changes and changing the field, you need guys to be able to execute well. Some of the wickets they got today, even Smith at leg slip early on, I think that was a set plan. Joe Burns' dismissal would have been exactly how they wanted it,” he added.
"Cam Green was set up today as well – Siraj bowled some really good outswingers to him then bowled an inswinger back down the line that trapped him in front. I think there's been a lot of planning that's gone into it and Rahane should take a lot of credit for that,” he continued.
"We had him at Delhi this year (in the IPL). He's a very smart cricketer, he's a terrific bloke, works exceptionally hard on his own game but it just seems today the Indian boys have got right in behind him and they're working for each other which is always good to see," he explained.
Opting to bat first, Australia got bowled out for 195 in 72.3 overs with Jasprit Bumrah (4-56) and Ashwin (3-35) doing the bulk of the damage.
Siraj (2-40) claimed two wickets while Ravindra Jadeja (1-15) chipped in with a scalp as none of the Aussie batsmen managed to touch the 50-run mark. Marnus Labuschagne was the top-scorer for the hosts with 48.
In reply, India lost Mayank Agarwal in the very first over for a duck but debutant Shubman Gill (28*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (8*) stayed there till the end to take the tourists to 36 for 1 at stumps.
