The rain-curtailed opening day of the Sydney Test turned out to be quite decent for the debutants — Australia opener Will Pucovski and India pacer Navdeep Saini.
Early in his spell on Thursday, Saini picked up his maiden Test wicket when he trapped fellow debutant Pucovski leg-before. But that was after Pucovski, who has been troubled by concussions multiple times in his young career, had made an impressive 62 in his first-ever Test innings.
Pucovski stitched a 100-run stand with Marnus Labuschagne (67 batting) as Australia were well placed at 166 for two at stumps on Day I of the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Steve Smith, the other not out batsman, was batting on 31.
With two reprieves, Pucovski sure enjoyed his luck, but he also exhibited confidence while playing his strokes. The pitch at the SCG looked friendlier for batsmen as compared to the ones in Adelaide and Melbourne, but Pucovski also deserves credit for not panicking after David Warner’s early dismissal. However, with his tendency to shuffle across the stumps, it is to be seen if the bowlers find him to be an easy leg-before candidate.
India could have cut short his stay in the middle had wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant not shelled two catches to let the opener off.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Siraj were the unlucky bowlers as Pant, who has been preferred in the XI over Wriddhiman Saha for his potential as a batsman, dropped Pucovski on 26 and 32.
The Indian camp, however, is not reading too much into it. “Dropping a catch is a part of the game. As a bowler, you do get upset, but it’s important to move on and focus on the next over,” pacer Siraj said after the day’s play.
Stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane gave Saini only seven overs to bowl in the 55-over day and he gave away 32 runs. While that may seem a bit on the expensive side by Test standards, Saini was hitting the right lengths against Labuschagne and Smith.
Siraj said that India’s plan going forward would be to keep up the pressure on the hosts. “It’s a very flat wicket, but when their batsmen saw the ball turning sharply late in the day, they went back to the crease. So our plan is to keep bowling tight in one channel and build pressure.”
‘Remembering dad’
Siraj was overcome by emotion when the Indian national anthem was played before the start of play on Thursday. “Just remembered my father at that time, as he wanted me to see playing Test cricket. I really wish he could see me playing for India,” Siraj said.
The 26-year-old’s father passed away in November last year, but the pacer at that time was already in Australia and decided against returning home for the funeral.
