Batting great Sunil Gavaskar said he was disappointed that Indian bowlers failed to reap any success with the pink ball on the opening day of the second Test against Australia here, saying they ought to have done better.
Australia were comfortably placed at 86 for one at stumps after bowling out India for 180 in their first innings, thanks to pacer Mitchell Starc's six-wicket haul.
Speaking on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, "They have to make the batters play as much as they can. And this is what happens when you make the batters play as much as you can.".
"You can get them out by bowling a few deliveries outside and then getting the ball to come back in, as it did with Nathan McSweeney in the Perth Test or with Labuschagne in the Perth Test, just like what Bumrah did. Indian bowlers have not used the pink ball so effectively as they could have. Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden has dubbed Starc "magician with the pink ball" after the left-arm quick tore apart the Indian batting.
Starc did the job of wrecker-in-chief for Australia as he took six Indian wickets for 48 runs.
Speaking of the Broadcaster with Starc, Hayden said, "He has that scrambled seam delivery that goes across the right-hander, but when he does have that ability - which he did - I must admit I was a little surprised. I've never really seen the pink ball swing into the sort of 40th over and so aggressively swing as well.
"By that time, he used a very crucial word, and it's a bit of an underutilized word as well, and that is 'momentum'. It was all in favor of India.".
"A tough spot to come back from in life and sport is those moments to wrestle back momentum, and Mitchell Starc did that only the way he can - when the lights are like the way they are and with that beautiful-coloured ball in his hand. He's just a magician with the pink ball." Reducing the visitors to 82 for four at tea, Australia took the remaining six wickets at the cost of 98 runs before dinner break was taken.
Starc fizzed and sizzled with his trademark inswingers to send R Ashwin and Harshit Rana back while Pat Cummins made good use of the short ball.
Speaking about the first day's bowling by Australia, Hayden said, "I think Australia bowled in two halves, to be honest. I thought their first maybe 20 overs, they were very conservative. It was like they knew that the pink ball was going to start to swing.".
"And when Scott Boland came around and just started getting into the line of the stumps, that was the turnaround. Around about that 35th over, we saw some of those missiles that Mitchell Starc started.".
"That was 45, 50 overs in, and it started to swing. That's what earned them the strong position they find themselves in today." India's assistant coach also Ryan ten Doeschate also praised Starc for his brilliant performance with the pink ball.
"I think Ash's dismissal was a very good example of why he's so effective with the pink ball.".
"When the ball swings back to some extent, a lesser extent, the batsmen generally manage to figure it out. When you are guessing on both sides, he becomes much more effective. Just the areas he bowled today were superb".
"And obviously he takes a lot of confidence from the pink ball, having done well in the past. And he's probably the main exponent of swing bowling out of the two teams."
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