Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Mitchell Starc claims six wickets to put Australia on top early in second Test

Mitchell Starc struck with the very first delivery of the Test and then took five more wickets to shoot Australia into the ascendency on day one in Adelaide.

The left-armer took career-best figures of 6/48 as Australia rolled India for 180 in two sessions.

Starc, now truly Australia’s first-over king, troubled all of India’s top order and dismissed three of them.

His dismissal of Yashasvi Jaiswal, who batted Australia out of the match two weeks ago, was Starc’s record-equalling third wicket off the first ball of a Test match. He drew level with former West Indian fast bowler Pedro Collins.

The left-armer delivered a thunderbolt first-up that Jaiswal played around and watched cannon into his pads. The prodigal batter weighed up a review, with ball-tracking showing moments later the ball would have cleaned up leg stump.

Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar said Jaiswal was brought undone by his trademark shuffle towards off stump.

“He does have a little shuffle towards the off stump, Jaiswal does,” he told Channel 7 and 7plus.

“And then he missed it. Looked to play across the line. Full length delivery. See that, he has gone outside the off stump.”

Starc and Scott Boland, playing his first Test since last year’s winter Ashes, left the visitors’ star-studded and bolstered-up batting unit at 5-87.

It was the second time in as many matches India’s first innings had crumpled in a heap.

Late on the opening day, Australia were 1-47 after 19 overs, with Usman Khawaja falling to Indian destroyer Jasprit Bumrah in the final session and Marnus Labuschagne at the crease, batting for his future in the Test team.

In a bizarre late twist, two of the light towers at Adelaide Oval briefly lost power, drawing jeers from a packed crowd. All four light towers then went out moments later, causing a brief delay where spectators used their mobile phones to light the ground.

Australia’s bowlers covered the loss of their workhorse Josh Hazlewood with captain Pat Cummins sharing the new ball in a more probing examination than anything they had delivered in Perth.

The dangers of the new ball had both KL Rahul and returning No.3 Shubman Gill dismissed after making starts because Australia made them play more balls than they did the first time they met.

The blistering Australian start came after a week of fierce backlash in the wake of their bruising defeat in Perth and with their hopes of regaining the Border-Gasvaskar Trophy already on thin ice.

Starc has more wickets than any other bowler in day-night Tests, with 72 at an average of 17.81, better than his career average of 27.53. Teammate Nathan Lyon is next-best with 43 victims.

His imposing status comes despite his initial criticism of the pink ball when it was trialled in a Sheffield Shield game in 2015, two years before the first day-night Test.

The veteran’s previous first-ball victims were Englishman Rory Burns on the opening day of the 2021/22 Ashes series and Sri Lankan Dimuth Karunaratne caught at mid-wicket with the first ball of a Test in Galle back in 2016

But he also dismissed Prithvi Shaw with the second ball of the match the last time the two teams met in Adelaide and famously knocked over Brendon McCullum after working him over with the first three balls of the 2015 World Cup final.

Remarkably, Collins dismissed Bangladesh batsman Hannan Sarkar on each of his three occasions, in 2002 and twice in 2004.

Boland had Gill, playing his first Test after breaking a finger in the WACA Ground nets, trapped lbw for 31. Nathan McSweeney at gully and Khawaja at slip both dropped early chances in a fielding display that had barely improved from a lamentable effort in the first match.

Virat Kohli, fresh off a breakthrough century, couldn’t continue his love affair with Adelaide Oval and was caught behind trying to get his hands out of the way of a Starc delivery.

That’s after the megastar batter had flashed at a wider ball that flew through the gully region.

The poor form of India captain Rohit Sharma continued on his return. In a shift to the middle-order that allowed Rahul to stay at the top, Sharma came out at No.6 and was trapped in front by Boland for three off 23 balls.

The Victorian cult hero took 2-54 in another glimpse of Australia’s pace depth, while Cummins took 2-41 after rolling Rishabh Pant for a flashy 21 and Bumrah for a duck.

India’s late flourish came from all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy, whose selection has been inspired as a late-hitting seam option.

He hit Starc for a six and slashed his way to 41 before going one too many times and sealing Starc’s best-ever figures. The 34-year-old’s previous best haul was 6-50. Starc took a wicket in the first over of each of his spells.

India’s early close meant second-gamer McSweeney faced the music in the dreaded twilight zone. Khawaja took the first ball of the innings, which Bumrah failed to make him play, but the paceman did have a ball hoop back perilously close to the stumps in the opening over.

McSweeney looked as rigid and nervous as he did early on his debut, but survived for long enough to see off Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj’s opening spell.

Khawaja fell for 13 when his hands came too far from his body and he nicked behind for Bumrah’s first wicket.

That brought Labuschagne to the crease, who finally got off the mark with his 19th delivery. The pair survived more than 20 overs, notching up a 50-run partnership in tricky conditions.

Australia ended play with nine wickets in hand, trailing India by 94 runs.

- With AAP