Day 1 of Australia’s three-Test series against the West Indies paints a familiar picture for Pat Cummins and his team: a star-studded pace attack turning a contest that threatened to be ripped from their grasp by another dire batting collapse.
On a spicy pitch in Barbados featuring dangerous uneven bounce and seam movement, the visitors’ brittle top and middle order, save for a strong counterattack from Travis Head and Usman Khawaja, proved incapable of handling the brilliant Shamar Joseph, who for the second time in two Tests against Australia, rubber-stamped his claim as one of world cricket’s most exciting fast bowlers.
The 25-year old sensation, who famously bowled the Windies to victory at the Gabba in January 2024, claimed four scalps, including each of Australia’s top three, and it was an injustice that teammate Jayden Seales beat him to a five-wicket haul by cleaning up the tail to roll the visitors for 180.
It’s the visitors’ lowest-ever score in the Caribbean after winning the toss and electing to bat first – considering the decades of terror past West Indies pace attacks inflicted on touring Australian teams during their period as the kings of cricket, that’s some accomplishment.
Joseph would have had his own five-for but for a DRS controversy that saw Head reprieved shortly after reaching 50, where third umpire Adrian Holdstock surprisingly ruled an edge behind to wicketkeeper Shai Hope hadn’t carried, with the lack of side-on camera angles proving crucial.
Joseph was also impeded by dropped catches, with two straightforward chances in the slips cordon in the first session preventing further damage; having slumped to 3/22 despite it, Australia’s collapse could have been even more disastrous had Khawaja not been put down by West Indies captain Roston Chase for just 6.
Regardless, the day belong to the emerging superstar, whose stunning delivery to bowl Beau Webster all ends up, angling in from over the wicket before seaming past the outside edge to disturb the stumps, a delivery to rival any he bowled at the Gabba during his seven-wicket haul last year that etched his name into West Indian folklore.
However, the day’s finish belonged to the visitors, with Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood all among the wickets to reduce the Windies to 4/57 by stumps, still 123 in arrears, on another day where ball comfortably trumped bat.
Starc accounted for both openers, using the extra bounce offered in Bridgetown to deadly effect as Kraigg Brathwaite and John Campbell both fell to catches behind the wicket, before Cummins enticed Keacy Carty into an edge behind after a sprightly 20 that looked capable of compounding Australia’s opening day misery.
Hazlewood accounted for nightwatchman Jomel Warrican with a perfect nip-backer into the top of off stump, though the spinner, having not bowled a single over earlier in the day amid the Windies’ pace onslaught, can at least be content with having saved a top-order teammate from receiving the same ball.
For Australia, questions about their still-frail batting line-up, having dropped Marnus Labuschagne and lost Steve Smith to a finger injury from their World Test Championship final XI, remain, chief among them Cameron Green’s increasingly doomed-looking elevation to No.3 in the batting order.
For the third time in three innings following on from Lord’s, Green pushed with hard hands at a ball he might have left to be caught in the cordon off Joseph for just 3; in truth, he was lucky to survive that long, Windies debutant Brandon King having put down a sitter to deny Joseph a second in just three balls following the removal of Sam Konstas in the innings’ fourth over.
Had the chance stuck, it would have left the Western Australian with the unenviable record of going three in three for being dismissed in the same over as the previous batter since his return to the team – while there is a chance to make amends in the second innings, his technique looks ill-suited to the challenge of coming in early against a moving new ball.
Equally culpable was the recalled Josh Inglis, who did nothing to justify his return after top-edging a pull shot off Seales for just 5, a shot that would have looked ugly even had it not come with the scoreline reading 2/22 at the time.
For 23-year old Seales, whose sole previous Test against Australia in Perth in late 2022 saw him finish the match injured and claim just one wicket, the five-wicket haul was ‘pretty special’.
“It [the pitch] was a bit slower than the Australians would have been expecting, and it worked in our favour, with them playing a lot at balls they didn’t have to and playing with hard hands so the edges would carry,” he said after play.
The young quick’s most daring moment, pointing Cummins back to the pavilion after dismissing him shortly after a crunching six over cover, may yet come back to haunt him for the remainder of this Test – but for the moment, Seales has the ascendancy.
Australia’s only resistance with the bat came via Khawaja and Head, whose brisk 89-run partnership briefly threatened to tip the scales back the visitors’ way on either side of lunch.
Brought to the crease earlier than would have been hoped once again after the top order crumbled, Head thumped a wide offering through cover off just his fifth ball for the day’s first boundary some 16 overs in, to begin the counterattack that Australia missed so dearly on both occasions against South Africa in the WTC final.
Following a torrid start to his innings, Head’s arrival seemingly released the shackles on Khawaja, who dispatched a short Alzarri Joseph offering over mid-wicket for six in the very next over to almost double his score at a stroke.
Having been going at barely 1.5 runs per over therein, the pair rattled on at a far brisker pace as the Windies’ seamers’ length began to falter.
The South Australian brought up his half-century off just 57 balls, and Khawaja looked set to join him after being offered another life with debutant King’s second drop on the gully.
Joseph’s return, though, would put paid to that, though the Aussie veteran would have been furious about his dismissal, the slowness of the wicket turning his attempted pull into a bottom edge safely nestling in Hope’s gloves.
When Webster was undone by the ball of the day, Joseph had four of the Windies’ five; from there, Seales took over with four of the innings’ last five wickets, but the identity of the chief destroyer was clear for all to see.
At last, too, the hosts’ fielding improved, with a sharp Chase catch at slip removing the dangerous Carey for just 8.
All up, seven of Australia’s ten wickets fell to catches behind the stumps, Hope’s four takes supported by three in the slips – if there was to be an image to sum up the day’s play, it would be a groping Australian bat giving catching practice to the cordon, a fate hearkening back to the dark days of the mid-2010s where the barest hint of seam or swing would make mincemeat of a batting order that would eventually end in disaster.
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