Virat Kohli walked in early after India opted to bat first in the Perth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal fell for ducks and Kohli was in to walk in the 11th over of the innings.
Alongside KL Rahul, Kohli had to put together a solid partnership revive India from the early stutter and the beginning was promising as he found the middle of the bat with the defensive pushes.
Australia threw everything at Kohli, testing the Indian veteran on the fourth and fifth stump line with Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
But the breakthrough came from Hazlewood. The relentless Aussie pacer landed the ball on a money, barely giving Kohli any room for his shots.
Off the second ball of the 17th over, Hazlewood got the ball to rise steeply from length to catch Kohli unawares. The edge flew to Usman Khawaja at slip where the catch was safely pouched. Kohli fell for five runs to leave India reeling at 32/3 in the first innings.
Kohli was a tad unlucky to fall in the manner he did and his expressions after the dismissal proved as much. The India No.4 batter received a delivery at a similar length the previous ball, where the ball didn’t bounce as much and was easily negotiated.
Off the second ball of the same over, Hazlewood got the Perth bounce he was seeking and Kohli was left in no man’s land, nicking the ball off the edge of the bat to the slip cordon.
Earlier, India won the toss and Jasprit Bumrah, standing in for Rohit Sharma as skipper, opted to bat first. India made a few shocking selection calls, handing debuts to Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy, and opting to play Washington Sundar as the lone spinner over veterans Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Australia: Nathan McSweeney, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah (c), Mohammed Siraj
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