Amid all the debate surrounding Australia’s batting order in the wake of the sandpaper controversy, you could almost be forgiven if you forgot about the efficiency of the Test team’s bowling line-up.

It’s been less than 12 months since Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon dismantled a much-fancied England side to regain the Ashes. It shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise that, Cheteshwar Pujara’s 246-ball 123 aside, the Australian bowlers took 8-127 on Day 1 of the First Test in Adelaide.

India won the toss and Virat Kohli confidently elected to bat first on a flat track, consigning Australia to the field for the day in 39°C heat. The coin toss was the only thing that swung India’s way in the opening session with Josh Hazlewood removing Lokesh Rahul with the last ball of the 2nd over.

After a solitary session, India’s scorecard read like so many others from their 11 previous ventures to Australia since 1947. The visiting side were 4-56 at the lunch break with all four top order wickets falling to catches behind the wicket from unnecessary drives away from the body.

One of the most talked about aspects of cricket is the ongoing mental battle between batsman and bowler. The bowler is proactively trying to make something happen in order to take a wicket, whereas the batsman is more reactive in knowing which shots to play and when they should be played.

Following the opening day of the First Test, we collated all of the ball-by-ball data from the day’s play to track how each batsman fared against each of Australia’s bowlers. All of the data from today is collated below and some of the results make for interesting reading. It was exactly this kind of data that became relevant with the dismissal of Virat Kohli.

Murali Vijay joined his opening partner Rahul in the sheds for just 11, leaving the away side reeling at 2-15. Indian captain Kohli was out in the middle earlier than he would’ve liked, but he still batted with precision and scored 3 off his first 13 balls. Then, Patrick Cummins came into the attack.

Staggeringly, Cummins had only ever bowled one delivery to Kohli in Test cricket to this point. This was at Ranchi back in March 2017. On that particular occasion, Kohli played a loose drive at a wide half-volley. With no feet movement, the Indian skipper was only successful in edging the ball to Steve Smith at second slip. One ball. One wicket.

Today, Cummins’ first ball was defended by Kohli back towards short mid-on. The second delivery was driven firmly straight to mid-off. Then, the big moment. Kohli couldn’t resist the temptation to drive Cummins’ third ball. Pushing hard at the delivery, the ball flew off the edge where Usman Khawaja put out a full stretch dive to his left to pluck a screamer out the air. Cummins versus Kohli in Test cricket, 1-0 off just 4 balls.

It is also interesting to note that since India’s last tour of Australia, Kohli has scored just 49 runs in six Test innings against Australia. That’s an average of just 8.16 from a player who otherwise averages 54.58 in Test cricket and 62 in Australian territory.

Looking at batsman v bowler data can provide valuable insight into which batsmen favoured which bowlers and vice versa. For example, Josh Hazlewood took just 2 deliveries to draw a false shot from opener Lokesh Rahul. Hazlewood’s first ball to Rahul, the fifth of the over, went sliding down leg before he enticed a loose drive from Rahul on the next ball that was edged through to Aaron Finch at third slip.

Similarly, Anjinkya Rahane was dismissed by Hazlewood with the first ball he faced from the tall fast bowler, also an edge off a full and wide delivery that this time flew to Peter Handscomb at second slip.

The data also suggests that Rohit Sharma struggled against Hazlewood with India’s number six scoring just 4 of his 37 runs off Hazlewood’s bowling from the 17 deliveries he faced.

It seems Hazlewood was the pick of the Australian bowlers then with the New South Welshman claiming 2-52 from 19.5 overs including 3 maidens. The pitch map below gives us a true indication of Hazlewood’s probing line and length and further explains India’s struggles against the big quick:

Rohit took more of a liking to Pat Cummins’ bowling instead. The swashbuckling right-hander hit 18 runs from 21 balls including one four and two sixes at a strike rate of 85.71 against the paceman. Rohit’s three boundaries against Cummins equates to a boundary percentage 14.3% or one boundary every seven Cummins deliveries.

Despite the dogged century posted by Cheteshwar Pujara—the only member of India’s current big five batters not to have previously registered a Test ton in Australia—it seems Cummins had better fortune bowling to him.

In Pujara’s mammoth 246-ball century, he scored 32 runs off Mitchell Starc (26%), 35 runs off Hazlewood (28%) and 43 runs off Nathan Lyon (35%). However, Pujara scored just 12 runs from 40 deliveries bowled to him by Cummins, or 10 per cent.

Pujara’s 123 was an integral part in ensuring that India reached a total higher than 200. In fact, Pujara scored no less than 49.2% of India’s stumps score of 9-250. Almost half of India’s runs came courtesy of just one batsman. Pujara batted with 8 different partners and remained on the field for 85.4 overs.

Comparison
CA Pujara: 1-123 (41 overs)
India: 8-127 (46.4 overs)

The visitors’ stumps score of 9-250 could have proved to be a distant dream if not for Pujara’s efforts. India would have been hoping for Pujara to continue his innings tomorrow and guide the team to a final total in excess of 300.

Ironically, it was Pat Cummins that eventually removed Pujara on what proved to be the final ball of the day’s play, but not with ball in hand. As Pujara hurried through for a quick single, Cummins somehow threw down the stumps at the non-strikers end from side-on while levitating in mid-air to end a weary Pujara’s innings on 123.

India went to stumps on day one with a score of 9-250 with Mohammed Shami on 6 runs set to joined by Jasprit Bumrah when play resumes tomorrow morning.

BATSMEN V BOWLERS DATA

India
KL Rahul v Starc: 2 off 6, Hazlewood: 1-0 off 2
M Vijay v Starc: 1-3 off 8, Hazlewood: 8 off 14
CA Pujara v Starc: 32 off 52, Hazlewood: 35 off 66, Cummins: 12 off 40, Lyon: 43 off 80, Head: 1 off 8
V Kohli v Starc: 1 off 6, Hazlewood: 2 off 7, Cummins: 1-0 off 3
AM Rahane v Hazlewood: 1-0 off 1, Cummins: 5 off 18, Lyon: 8 off 12
RG Sharma v Starc: 2 off 9, Hazlewood: 4 off 17, Cummins: 18 off 21, Lyon: 1-13 off 14
RR Pant v Starc: 16 off 12, Cummins: 5 off 16, Lyon: 1-4 off 10
R Ashwin v Starc: 2 off 8, Hazlewood: 2 off 7, Cummins: 1-9 off 15, Lyon: 11 off 42, Head: 1 off 4
I Sharma v Starc: 1-0 off 8, Hazlewood: 0 off 1, Cummins: 0 off 1, Lyon: 4 off 10
Mohammed Shami v Starc: 5 off 5, Hazlewood: 1 off 4

FACTS & FIGURES

• Mitchell Starc’s fastest delivery was recorded at 151.4 km/h.
• This was Cheteshwar Pujara’s 16th hundred in 65 Tests and his 3rd against Australia.
• Marcus Harris became the 456th man to play Test cricket for Australia. His baggy green was presented by Michael Hussey.
• Cheteshwar Pujara’s innings contained 180 dot balls totalling 73.2% of all deliveries he faced.
• Ishant Sharma scored from just one of the 20 balls he faced.
• Rohit Sharma contributed 82.22% of the runs during his partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara.
• India’s highest partnership of 62 runs was that of Cheteshwar Pujara (37) and Ravichandran Ashwin (25).