Virat Fades, India Surges

GH watches Kohli battle and Bumrah believe

Virat Kohli’s decline; Marnus Labuschagne’s neurosis; Jasprit Bumrah’s genius; the general flakiness of modern batting. All might have presented themselves as subjects today, but in the end have been swallowed by a Test match rolling as relentlessly as a tide, washing away seventeen wickets on the first day in the course of 217 runs.

These days, of course, nothing is ever quite right. Australia have not played a Test in 256 days; this is India’s sixth in sixty-four days. In the end the preparation of not playing very well has shown up better than not playing, even if the outcomes don’t speak highly of either.