How on earth did Australia win this Test? We are all thinking this.
Australia is still trying to figure this out. This is India, the tour was combusting, and every single pitch was designed for them to completely fall apart. The very existence of Indian curators is to annoy Australians. Sub-continental grass is their bete noire, or at least the fossils of something that once was grasslike. The wickets were so against them they might as well have gone home already. Most of them already have.
The Agar Saga has been huge. Josh Hazlewood went home as well. Mitch Swepson has been gone and returned. Now Pat Cummins is home. Australia doesn't have a squad; they have a collection of names who may or may not be in the country.
Most of their squad seemed injured for the first Test. With all due respect to Scott Boland and Matt Renshaw, they were not plan A or even plan B selections. And with all the bad batting, many of us had rightfully assumed this was over.
If anything, I am upset that Australia has salvaged their tour from hell. I was looking forward to a good long disaster trip. The next cricket Australia documentary could have been a plane, trains and automobiles reboot.
That didn't happen because Australia came back from the dead.
But how?
It started with India's first session, which was completely bizarre. Rohit Sharma decided to come down the wicket and play a huge shot. Which came after Alex Carey got hit in the face if I recall correctly.
When a keeper is so surprised by the bounce that it smacks them early on day one, I would assume that means you should bat slightly more circumspect. India seemed to borrow Australia's arse-on-fire style.
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