Adelaide: Post Day 1 of the 2nd Test match at Adelaide—a highly anticipated Pink Ball Test—India and Australia legends Sunil Gavaskar and Matthew Hayden shared their insights exclusively on Star Sports. Reflecting on the opening day of the IND vs AUS 2nd Test of the Border-Gavaskar series, they discussed various topics, including Australia’s bowling performance, Mitchell Starc’s brilliance, and areas where India can improve on Day 2.
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports, former Australian batsman Matthew Hayden spoke about Starc’s brilliant performance, He said:
“He has that scrambled seam delivery that goes across the right-hander, but when he does have that ability—which he did—I must admit I was a little surprised. I’ve never really seen the pink ball swing into the sort of 40th over and so aggressively swing as well. By that stage, he used a really important word, and it’s a bit of an underrated word as well, and that’s ‘momentum.’ It was all in favor of India. A difficult position to come back from in life and sport is those opportunities to wrestle back momentum, and Mitchell Starc did that in only the way he can—when the lights are like the way they are and with that beautiful-colored ball in his hand. He’s just a magician with the Pink Ball.”
Matthew Hayden also provided his take on Australia’s bowling performance on Day 1. He said:
“I think Australia bowled in two halves, to be honest. I thought their first maybe 20 overs, they were very conservative. It was like they knew that the pink ball was going to start to swing. And when Scott Boland came around and just started getting into the line of the stumps, that was the turnaround. Around about that 35th over, we saw some of those missiles that Mitchell Starc started. That was 45, 50 overs in, and it started to swing. That’s what earned them the strong position they find themselves in today.”
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports, Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar shared his thoughts on what Indian bowlers need to do on Day 2. He said:
“They have to make the batters play as much as they can. And this is what happens when you make the batters play as much as you can. You can set them up by bowling a couple of deliveries outside and then get the ball to move back in, as it did to Nathan McSweeney in the Perth Test, or to Labuschagne in the Perth Test, like what Bumrah did. The Indian bowlers have not really used the pink ball as well as they should have.”
