Bumrah shines on Perth's pace paradise as 17 wickets fall

On a remarkable day of fast bowling, even by Perth's fabled standards, India bounced back from a faltering first innings to have Australia on the ropes in the opening bout of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

An extraordinary final-session collapse in the face of some of the most sustained fast bowling a touring team has produced in Australia saw the home team limp to 7-67 at stumps and 83 runs in arrears.

If there was hope to be salvaged for the hosts it's that Alex Carey, the in-form first-class batter of the current summer, will resume on 19 tomorrow, although the keeper appeared to be troubled by left knee soreness during his 28-ball stay tonight.

However, the furious start to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign at Perth Stadium represented the loudest clatter of wickets in a day's Test cricket in Australia since 19 fell on the final day of the two-day Test with South Africa in 2022.

Knocked over for 150 in less than 50 overs, India led by fast-bowling skipper Jasprit Bumrah ripped through the host's top-order to revive memories of their past two triumphant tours to Australia and ghosts from even further in the past.

In losing their first five wickets for 38 in barely an hour's batting this evening, Australia made their worst start to a Test innings on home soil since the infamous 2016 loss to South Africa at Hobart that brought a major overhaul of their team.

With Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj near unplayable with the new ball, and fellow right-armer Harshit Rana – who with teammate Nitish Kumar Reddy and Australia's Nathan McSweeney made their Test debuts today – Australia had no answer.

After McSweeney was trapped lbw (on review) by Bumrah in the innings; third over, he was followed in quick succession by opening partner Usman Khawaja (8), Steve Smith (first-ball duck), Travis Head (11) and Mitchell Marsh (6).

The home team's predicament might have been even more dire had Virat Kohli held a straightforward chance at second slip off Bumrah from the second delivery faced by Marnus Labuschagne who had yet to score.

Labuschagne's struggles underscored the difficulty Australia faced as he laboured for 24 deliveries across 48 minutes to find his first run, by which time he had been dropped at slip, almost gloved a chance down the leg side and was struck a stinging blow in the midriff.

When he eventually departed for two after a torturous 95 minutes at the crease, his team was 6-47 and staring at their lowest completed innings total since India demolished them for 91 at Nagpur last year.

It wasn't only the disparity in scores at the end of day one that set apart two bowler-laden teams.

While debutant McSweeney is the only member of Australia's starting XI under the age of 30, India fielded six players 25 or under having overlooked veteran spin-bowling all-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

The tone of a day when 17 wickets fell for barely 200 runs was set after India's stand-in skipper Bumrah won the toss and, in line with all four previous Tests played at the venue, opted to bat.

But unlike those prior matches that have yielded an average first-innings total of just over 450, it quickly became obvious this was to be a bowler-dominated contest.

Whether it was the movement on offer from the live grass on a pitch whose preparation was plagued by some unseasonably cool, damp weather, or just outstanding seamers exposing less-than-stellar batting, the evidence could hardly have been more compelling.

Perhaps the most revealing statistic of the opening session was India's top-order batters took almost an hour of play to record the team's first boundary on a fast, bouncy strip with a slower-than-usual outfield by which time they were two wickets down.

That became 3-32 shortly after the series' first drinks break when Virat Kohli's recent run of modest scores continued, and 4-47 when Rahul was adjudged caught behind on review even though the opener was demonstrably of the view his bat had clipped pad rather than ball.

It wasn't until Rishabh Pant and new cap Nitish Kumar Reddy fashioned a seventh-wicket stand of 48 from 85 balls that India could have been confident of producing something their revamped bowling pace attack could bowl at.

The pair's union melded resolute defence with some eye-opening innovation, most notably Pant's outrageous falling-down scoop over fine leg for six off Cummins but also some neat reverse sweeps from top scorer Reddy to negate Nathan Lyon's spin.

When Pant nicked to second slip for 37, the bottom half of India's order replicated the top with the final four wickets falling for 29.

India's seemingly sub-par first innings might have been even leaner but for some Australian profligacy in the field where a couple of catches went down, and through their use of DRS which was considerably less on target than their bowling.

But there was also some smart catching behind the wicket where nine of India's 10 wickets were claimed, none better than Labuschagne's reflex snare to remove Rana after McSweeney had parried it from a low dive to his left at gully.

The compelling day of drama, which included some fiery exchanges involving India's Kohli and Siraj during a spicy final session, had begun in altogether more benign fashion after the three new Test caps were handed out.

Mitchell Starc's start was inauspicious, with a series-opening delivery that wasn't exactly Steve Harmison of 2006 but nor was it a replica of his 2021 rocket that removed Rory Burns, instead fizzing past leg stump and keeper Carey for four byes.

A no-ball later in the over meant India had progressed without a run off the bat by the start of Starc's second, which yielded a wicket from the first shot fired in defiance by the visitors.

In his maiden Test knock on Australia turf, left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal paid full price by attempting to drive on the up before becoming fully accustomed to the ball's bounce and movement and provided McSweeney with an early career highlight in the gully.

Starc was finding good shape and beat Devdutt Padikkal's outside edge with consecutive deliveries, but it was Hazlewood – after he replaced his fellow fast bowler from the member's end – who ended the left-hander's stay.

Crowned best emerging player at the IPL in 2020, Padikkal found scoring a far more troublesome proposition in just his second Test outing and eventually edged behind for a 23-ball, 39-minute duck.

With the score 2-14 and batting talisman Kohli at the crease inside the first hour, India's struggle was encapsulated by their initial boundary that arrived in the day's 12th over.

In attempting to sway beneath a Cummins' bouncer, Rahul left his upraised bat in the firing line and the ball thudded into its outside edge and flew safely above the slips cordon to the rope.

Kohli signalled his intent before facing a ball by batting well outside his crease in a bid to negate the movement from Australia's quicks, but even he was left groping speculatively as Hazlewood kept hammering a relentless length.

After a couple of singles and a push for three down the ground off Cummins, Kohli's day was done when he was unable to tame Hazlewood's extra bounce and parried a chest-high catch to Khawaja at first slip from high on the bat.

The introduction of local hero Mitchell Marsh immediately after lunch proved a masterstroke, as India's reserve keeper Dhruv Jurel pushed forward with an angled bat to become the fifth of the visitors' first five wickets to be caught behind the wicket.

That tally rose to six shortly after speculative forward press as Washington Sundar, a hero of India's series-clinching triumph in his debut Test at Brisbane four years ago, produced a straightforward catch for Carey and a more demonstrable celebration from Marsh.

But at 6-73 and eyeing another demolition of India's batting for less than 100, Australia's dominance met overdue resistance and not all of it was entirely due to the tourists' mettle.

Cummins burned his team's second review with a suspected catch behind off Pant (on 17) which the review process proved had clipped the batter's shirt, then didn't call for off-field adjudication when Reddy (on 10) gloved Starc down the leg side to Carey.

Pant decided his best method of counter-punch was occasional surges of extravagance, and the ploy seemed prudent when Cummins was unable to hold a difficult fly ball running back towards the rope from mid-on when the feisty left-hander was 26.

But despite the occasional blow of note, the tactic carried an air of 'hit out before you get out', which Pant and Reddy ultimately did to unleash the final-session fireworks.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: November 22-26: Perth Stadium, 1.20pm AEDT

Second Test: December 6-10: Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (D/N)

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: (first Test only) Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed