'Taking a bullet for your country': Brave India's unlikely comeback

It's a measure of the evolution of Indian cricket that, weeks after suffering an unprecedented Test whitewash in conditions they have historically revelled in, they arrive on a pitch utterly alien and produce a bowling performance for the ages.

Beginning their defence of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Perth Stadium – a venue that boasts the fastest, bounciest track in the world game – should have represented kryptonite for a supposedly struggling team raised on low, spinning sub continental surfaces.

But while their batters might have battled with the pace and lateral movement offered on day one of the series in the west, that was more than mitigated by the response from fast-bowling captain Jasprit Bumrah (4-17) and his fellow quicks in reducing Australia to 7-67 at stumps.

Nobody better exemplified the spirit of an Indian line-up that would have traditionally been considered rank outsiders in Australia after their demoralising three-nil defeat to New Zealand at home than 21-year-old Test debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy.

The top-scorer in what initially appeared a sub-par score of 150 from less than 50 overs, Reddy revealed the advice imparted by India coach Gautam Gambhir after his final practice session ahead of his maiden Test innings on Perth's famed fast bowler-friendly surface.

"I heard a lot about Perth," Reddy said after his brave and often innovative 41 (from 59 balls) helped India take an 83-run lead into day two with 17 wickets tumbling today.

"I still remember last practice we were having, after the practice I had a chat with Gautam sir, and he was mentioning when you get any bouncers or something like that, sharp spells, you just take it on your shoulders.

"Just feel like you are taking a bullet for your country, and that really helped me a lot.

"That boosted me up, so I was feeling I would somehow have that in the back of the mind.

"Perth wicket, everyone was talking there would be good bounce in this wicket and he said that thing and I felt like I need to take bullets for your country.

"That's the best thing I heard from Gautam."

Once considered vulnerable on the sort of fast, bouncy tracks they never encounter at home, India showed they are now seemingly more suited to those conditions after making a similarly stumbling start to their previous tour of Australia.

Humbled for 36 in the second innings of the opening Test of 2020-21 at Adelaide, they somehow regrouped to win that series 2-1 despite losing a string of senior players along the way.

Today, they fielded a team with two debutants (Reddy and 22-year-old fast bowler Harshit Rana) among the six members aged 25 or less, and without the all-round experience of veteran competitors Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, who were overlooked.

And while their resurgence after the humiliation of a series whitewash at home might have surprised many, fast bowler Mitchell Starc claimed Australia had expected nothing less from his team's most potent recent rival.

"That (NZ defeat) was a completely different series, different conditions and different teams," Starc said after claiming 2-14 and finishing 6no on day one.

"That was entertaining to watch that series unfold, but we know how good a team India are and that was shown today.

"I thought we bowled quite well with perhaps (India posting) an under-par score and they've come out and matched us with the ball.

"We know coming to the west or playing at the Gabba, they're places you need to pitch the ball up and encourage driving because we know there's more pace and bounce in those two grounds.

"That was true again today, and both teams did that very well to encourage the shots and bring in the edges and there were catches taken."

Starc, who has played in all four previous Tests at Perth Stadium where Australia have been undefeated and the average first-innings score has been more than 450, said he didn't see any glaring difference in the pitch for this game.

However, he noted the outfield was the slowest he has encountered at the venue – likely due to the rain and cooler weather that dominated the lead-in – which contributed to today's lower scores.

And he added the well-grassed pitch is already exhibiting the early signs of cracking which will likely ensure batting remains problematic against such high-quality pace bowling outfits on both sides.

It was the quality of the bowling, rather than any overt demons in the pitch that attributed to clatter of wickets across day one according to Starc.

The 34-year-old was also at pains to point out it can be brilliance with the ball rather than gremlins in the surface that produce the sort of one-sided output witnessed on a bowler-dominated day.

"There might have been a bit more sideways movement (but) I don't know if they were very different wickets to all the (other Perth Stadium) Test matches," he said.

"I think there was a fair bit of good bowling today.

"Obviously there was enough in the wicket, and it probably felt it was a hard-ball wicket.

"When the ball started to get a little bit softer towards the back end of that (India) innings it probably didn't do as much.

"I guess that's something for teams to take into the second innings, if you can get through the testing period it does get slightly easier.

"There's a lot spoken when there's a lot of runs that bowlers bowled badly, but when there's wickets it's 'oh, the (pitches) are tough'.

"You're allowed to bowl good balls, so maybe credit should go to both teams of bowlers."

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, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, 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, Yash Dayal