Pace ace Mitchell Starc predicts the tricky Optus Stadium pitch will only continue to misbehave as the first match of Australia’s Border-Gavaskar series against India moves towards an early finish.
A whopping 17 wickets fell on a crazy opening day on Friday, with India dismissed for 150 before Australia were left reeling at 7-67.
Alex Carey (19th) and Starc (6th) hold the key to Australia’s hopes of avoiding a sizeable first innings deficit.
Australia are in danger of falling to their lowest Test score at home since 1984, when they were beaten for 76 by the rampant West Indies.
Jasprit Bumrah (4-17) played a devastating first spell to remove debutant opener Nathan McSweeney (10), Usman Khawaja (eight) and Steve Smith (golden duck).
Inspired by their new leader, debutant Harshit Rana (1-33) and Mohammed Siraj (2-17) dealt further blows to Australia in the final session.
Bowler Mitchell Starc hopes to avoid Australia’s blushes with the bat on Saturday.
Indian bowler Jasprit Bumrah broke through the Australian opener in the first innings.
The Australians face the lowest home innings total in history following the capitulation.
Australian fans did not hold back after the first innings capitulation, calling it embarrassing.
“Most of our top 6 are in terrible shape, our players have been carrying the team for a long time,” one wrote.
“Our players have been papering over the batting cracks for a while, we were lucky to win in New Zealand,” agreed another.
“This is what happens when you put all the emphasis on pajama cricket,” posted another.
Unseasonal rain in the run-up to the Perth Test greatly affected ground preparation.
WA Cricket chief curator Isaac McDonald even predicted the wicket would hold up better than normal as the match progressed.
“In terms of those big snake-shaped WACA cracks, I don’t think the weather will take us there,” he said two days before the start of the test.
But Starc predicts otherwise after seeing the field begin to crack on the first day.
Starc says the pitch is starting to crack and is unlikely to settle for the batsmen later in the match.
‘There are some cracks there. So I don’t imagine the situation will calm down the longer the game goes on,” Starc said.
Starc said the key now for teams would be to negotiate the ball when it is at its most difficult.
If they can survive that period, the batsmen will have a better chance of scoring runs.
But if the trend of the first day continues, the trial could end in three days.
“When the ball started to soften a little bit towards the end of that Indian innings, it probably didn’t do as much,” Starc said.
‘There was still enough left, but it wasn’t as good as the new hard ball.
‘So I guess that’s something for teams to take in in the second inning.
‘If you can get through the trial period, everything becomes a little easier.
“That said, the outfield is pretty slow, so that probably made runs a little difficult to come by.”
“That’s probably the slowest outfield we’ve seen out west in a long time.”
India won the last two series in Australia and currently holds the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
India are now in the box seat to claim a 1-0 lead in the series, but Starc did not panic over Australia’s batting collapse on the first day.
“Wickouts happen, it’s business as usual, and we’ll go out (Saturday) and try to get as close to that total as we can,” Starc said.
Australia’s top and middle order will be under enormous pressure to perform in the second innings after their meek display on Friday.
India stand-in captain Jasprit Bumrah (4-17 off 10 overs) trapped openers Nathan McSweeney (10) and Usman Khawaja (8), before trapping Steve Smith LBW for a golden duck.
Marnus Labuschagne scored two painfully slow off 52 balls before Mohammed Siraj closed his innings.
Mitch Marsh also fell to Siraj, while Travis Head was defeated cleanly by Harshit Rana.
The horrific collapse has left Carey burdened with a huge rescue mission and only his tail to work with.
A positive omen for Australia is the fact that Carey is in good form, having scored 452 runs at an average of 90.4 in his three Sheffield Shield matches this season.