India can surely not have had many sweeter days of Test cricket than what they enjoyed on Day 3 at Optus Stadium.
Heading in with the Test well and truly in their control thanks to Jasprit Bumrah’s virtuoso performance and Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul’s unbroken opening partnership, what followed was wall to wall dominance of the sort rarely inflicted upon an Australian team on their own turf.
From Jaiswal’s breathtaking century – brought up in typically outrageous fashion via a ramp off Josh Hazlewood for six – to Virat Kohli winding back the years for his first century in 17 months and stamp himself as one of the greatest touring batters ever to visit these shores, to Bumrah conjuring yet more magic to trap debutant Nathan McSweeney plumb in front with a vicious low shooter and then Marnus Labuschagne shouldering arms to an inswinger, there was no end to India’s glory – or Australia’s woes – in bright sunshine in Perth.
Australia’s victory target of 534, whittled down to 522 by stumps to the cost of Bumrah’s two wickets and nightwatchman Pat Cummins edging Mohammed Siraj to Koli at slip, is a moot point.
Even on a wicket not showing signs of substantial spin and uneven bounce, even with a fully-firing batting order at the peak of their powers, this would be a mountain too far to climb. And they’d have to hope for Western Australia to spontaneously be teleported into the English midlands to have a prayer of weather intervening to save their bacon as it did in Manchester during the 2023 Ashes, the last time Pat Cummins’ men endured a day as dire as this.
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A horror final session for Australia continues, as Labuschange departs.
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Kohli’s return to form for just his third Test ton in five years may have proved the headline act, but star of the show was undoubtedly Jaiswal: nervelessly taking on arguably world cricket’s most imperious bowling attack, the 22-year old showed exactly why he has been heralded India’s next true batting great.
Aside from the occasional flirt with danger as late cuts narrowly cleared a leaping slips cordon, it seemed Australia’s only hope of dismissing the opener was via a run out, with a pair of missed chances to throw down the stumps from Cummins and Travis Head with Jaiswal not even in the frame punished severely.
Jaiswal would finish on 161 before tamely, and almost inexplicably given his previous level of control, steering Mitchell Marsh to point; but he’d already etched his name into the history books, becoming the first man since Graeme Smith to turn his first four Test centuries into 150+ scores and combining with KL Rahul for just the second ever 200-run opening stand by a touring team in Australia, and first in some 110 years.
But no sooner had he departed than Kohli, hitherto content to ride in his young teammate’s slipstream, took centre stage.
Having looked fidgety and nervous in his brief stay at the crease on Day 1, perhaps his team’s dominant position was enough to clear the veteran’s mind; certainly, his footwork was sharper, his strokeplay more decisive, and his timing reminiscent of the Kohli of old, a crisply struck on drive early in his innings an ominous sign on a day already bad enough for the hosts.
As an evening declaration loomed, the ante was duly upped, Kohli treating Labuschagne’s bouncers with such disdain that he chose to finish the day bowling leg-spin, with his line of around the wicket and well outside leg stump so obvious of Australia’s intentions to try and run the clock down that he was even penalised for negative bowling.
Other moments have been more significant in determining this Test, but there couldn’t possibly have been any more symbolic than that.
Amid the wreckage, any bright spots for Australia were tinged with further gloom: Rishabh Pant’s pre-meditated charge of Lyon outfoxing himself to be stumped spared the Aussies an even more destructive onslaught, but Cummins’ low shooter to trap Dhruv Jurel LBW, plus a viciously spinning off-break from Nathan Lyon that Alex Carey had not a prayer of stopping, told of a wicket in decline.
Together with a free-swinging Nitish Kumar Reddy, whose Day 1 cameo was the first sign of Indian resistance this Test, Kohli’s century was brought up so rapidly – his last 33 runs came off just 27 balls – that not even the maestro himself appeared to realise the milestone was his.
Yet with gradual understanding came barely restrained glee: as an adoring crowd nearly entirely composed of Indian supporters rose as one, Kohli saluted their acclaim, paying special tribute to wife Anushka Sharma, watching on in the stands.
Bumrah’s instant declaration upon Kohli’s milestone gave Australia, and openers McSweeney and Usman Khawaja, 26 minutes to survive before stumps.
The former, whose baptism of fire this Test is more than should have been asked of a first-time opener, couldn’t even last five before the pitch’s first trick: angling in venomously from over the wicket, all the assistance Bumrah needed was a touch of skid to blast the South Australian’s pad off, so plumb there was no need to even review.
Cummins won plaudits for his entrance into the cauldron as nightwatchman, yet even that move would prove fruitless on multiple counts.
First, the captain would prove unable to keep out Mohammed Siraj, the Robin to Bumrah’s Batman finding movement to catch Cummins’ outside edge and present Kohli with a gift in the slips cordon; then, Labuschagne himself would prove to have been a waste protecting.
Amid a form slump now reaching career-threatening proportions – just once in his last five Tests has the Queenslander passed 10 – a defiantly loud call of ‘no run’ and brief verbal battle with Siraj after defending his first ball was as close as Labuschagne got to the Marnus of old.
In the day’s final blow, it was Bumrah, naturally, who proved too good: inexplicably desperate to shoulder arms given everything India’s acting captain has sent down this Test, Labuschagne was powerless as another sharp inswinger cannoned into his pads.
Adding further ignominy, Labuschagne chose for the second time in the Test to burn a review, though this time the fruitless check with the DRS that did nought but prove just how spectacularly plumb he was might have had a benefit – it at least ensured stumps would be called with no further damage possible.
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