As many as 17 wickets fell on the opening day of the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test between Australia and India at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Opting to bat first, India’s first innings folded for a paltry 150, with the Aussie quicks namely Josh Hazlewood (4-29), Mitchell Starc (2-14), Pat Cummins (2-67) and Mitchell Marsh (2-12) sharing the wickets among them.
Riding on stand-in skipper Jasprit Bumrah’s sensational spell (4-17), the visitors reduced the hosts to 67/7 at stumps.
Addressing the media after the close of play on Day 1, Starc defended the spicy pitch while also suggesting that the batting will get better as the game progresses.
"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 in the post-day presser.
"When the ball started to get a little bit softer towards 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 hard ball.
"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 in the west for a long time," he added.
The left-arm pacer further remarked that batting conditions were not becoming harder across Australia as he credited the bowlers for their top-class performances.
"How many ways can you 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."
KL Rahul was dismissed under controversial circumstances on Day 1 of the Perth Test. Facing Mitchell Starc during the 23rd over of India’s innings, the right-handed opener got forward to defend a delivery that angled across him.
The ball passed close to the bat and was caught by wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The on-field umpire gave it not out but Australia decided to take DRS, claiming a faint edge.
Upon review, TV umpire Richard Illingworth adjudged the batter to have nicked the ball following a spike on Ultra Edge even though the front-on replay was inconclusive.
Starc, however, played down the chatter around Rahul's contentious dismissal, saying it was a 'regulation wicket'.
"It got overturned obviously, but I thought it was regulation, the sound it made, the timing of it, I thought it was just a regulation wicket," he remarked.
