Battered and befuddled?

17 wickets fall on the first day in Perth that was hell for batsmen.

These are not happy days for the world’s Test batsmen. Runs have never seemed harder to come by, sides are increasingly skippered by bowlers and life seems like one endless, uphill battle where only sloggers seem to prosper.

The first day of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was a great one to be a bowler, but one that had those born to bat cursing their fate as 17 wickets fell for just 217 runs.

Josh Hazlewood took 4-29, Mitch Starc 2-14, Mitch Marsh 2-12, Jasprit Bumrah 4-17 and Mohammaed Siraj 2-17.

Steve Smith made a golden duck. Marnus Labuschagne was in the middle for 52 deliveries, but departed with a body full of bruises and just two runs for his troubles. All that and he’d been dropped by Virat Kohli early in his innings. And Kohli, well, we’ll get to him.