Australia vs India second Test talking points: Great pitch, average crowd, and cricket just the way it should be played

Australia have squared up the Border-Gavaskar series with a commanding 146-run win over India in the second Test at Optus Stadium.

The Test hung in the balance for much of the first four days before a brilliant last session with the ball swung the match in Australia’s favour yesterday, and it took just 15 overs for the bowlers to finish the job on Day 5.

Here’s what we learnt from the gripping Test.

Now that was good, hard cricket
If you were to describe how exactly Australian fans want their team to play cricket, this is the Test you’d use as an example. There was no ugly, abusive sledging picked up by the stump microphones, no particularly confrontational scenes between the sides.

Instead, there was plenty of chatter exchanged which could be best described as good-natured – Tim Paine’s quip to Murali Vijay was outstanding – and the Australians showed fight where it mattered.

Tim Paine and Usman Khawaja’s gutsy partnership in the second innings staved off a possible collapse and went a long way to guiding Australia to victory. Aaron Finch came out to bat with a busted hand, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc combined for 36 last-wicket runs when the pitch was tricky to bat on, and the bowlers rallied strongly when India threatened to build a first-innings lead.

That’s not to say everything’s rosy for Justin Langer’s men.

Travis Head looks a Test batsman but got out twice playing like a T20 slasher, questions will surround Finch’s place in the side regardless of whether his finger is healthy, and while two matches is hardly enough of a chance back in the side, few could criticise the selectors if they drop Peter Handscomb following his woeful second-innings dismissal.

(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

But issues around the batting order were expected before the summer started. After what happened in South Africa early in the year, it was critical the Test team started playing a brand of cricket Australian fans can be proud of. That’s exactly what we saw this match.

India got it wrong at the selection table
Before Day 1, Ronan O’Connell outlined why it would be a mistake for India to go with a four-pronged pace attack. They should have listened to him.

By opting to replace the injured Ravi Ashwin with Umesh Yadav and not Ravindra Jadeja, the tourists missed a trick, simultaneously denying themselves a frontline spinner and severely weakening their tail.

Green as the pitch was, it was still a good one for spin bowling. Nathan Lyon, whose dominant form has seen him snare five-fors in both Tests this summer, showed just how effective a world-class spinner could be on the drop-in surface.

The extra bounce undoubtedly helped him, while his straighter deliveries which picked up a couple of key wickets – Ajinkya Rahane in the first innings, Virat Kohli in the second – were exactly the type Jadeja would have threatened Australia’s batting with.

(AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Jadeja would have also given India’s tail some much-needed gumption. Instead, their line-up had a proper ‘six out, all out’ feel to it, never even threatening to add the valuable lower-order runs Australia’s bowlers provided.

Can Australia continue to exploit India’s opening frailty?
India’s top order loomed as the key difference between the two sides heading into this series. And while Kohli, Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have all been a class above their Australian counterparts, the tourists’ opening stocks are a clear weakness.

Murali Vijay and KL Rahul are both yet to reach the half-century mark for the entire series, and that woeful form isn’t limited to the last two matches; their Test averages over the past 12 months are just 18 and 22 respectively.

Young star Prithvi Shaw had been looming as a replacement for one of the underperforming openers, but his ankle injury has now ruled him out for the entire series, with the uncapped Mayank Agarwal added to India’s squad in Shaw’s place.

Argawal’s first-class average of 50 is excellent, but a Test debut facing Josh Hazlewood, a suddenly not-so-droppable Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Lyon at the MCG will be a tough ask.

Whatever way India go with the make-up of their top order, there’s a vulnerability for Australia to exploit, one which could well decide the series.

The Optus Stadium pitch was terrific
Credit must go to curator Brett Sipthorpe for preparing an excellent surface for the first ever Test at Optus Stadium.

It offered pace, sideways movement and periods of inconsistent bounce, but there were also runs to be had for batsmen who applied themselves. More scores of fifty or more were made in Perth than in Adelaide, and there were passages in the game when the pitch looked docile.

That’s what you want for a Test: something which offers assistance to the bowlers without forcing batsmen to concentrate solely on survival. It’s no coincidence that this wicket facilitated an engrossing match which didn’t swing decisively in either side’s favour until late on Day 4.

We’ve been treated to two good surfaces and two excellent matches to start the series. Hopefully, new MCG groundsman Matt Page continues the trend and produces a pitch with plenty of life in it – something recent Boxing Day Tests have been sorely missing.

The crowd… not so much
Great as the Perth pitch was, the crowd there to see it was disappointing. Barely a third of Optus Stadium’s seats were occupied on Day 1 when 20,746 fans turned up, and that was the only day which cracked the 20k mark.

As a comparison, the first Test in Adelaide attracted more than 22,000 spectators every day bar the last, including 30,348 on Day 3.

It’s a meagre turnout, and one which, as luck would have it, would have filled out the WACA Ground nicely – hardly the Test debut the WACA were hoping for.

If the WACA are to get their wish and host a day-night Test despite the issue of a three-hour time difference between Perth and Sydney, they’re going to need far more fans coming through the Optus Stadium turnstiles to watch Test cricket.