Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT): Buckle your seatbelts and get ready for a summer of bowlers. On an utterly stunning opening day at Perth, the batsmen from both teams wobbled along at a below-par standard to make the Test match, and the series, rather interesting. When India were shot out for 150, it seemed like a nasty rewind to the summers of 90’s. Instead, jaws dropped at the Optus Stadium in admiration and respect at the startling fightback, led by the captain Jasprit Bumrah and the newcomer Harshit Rana, ably supported by Mohammad Siraj to leave Australia reeling at 67 for 7 at stumps.

It’s 2024, but the fightback had the feel of the 2021 series during the pandemic. Bumrah’s quality is known, but Siraj has been off-colour in recent months and Rana was an unknown commodity. To do this if India had bowled first or had a huge score behind them would have been one thing but for them to crack open the series like this, after being almost shoved out of the game by tea, was something else.

The quote of the day belonged to Nitish Reddy, who made a sparkling 59-ball 41, with six fours and a six. He cued up a chat from the head coach Gautam Gambhir, who told him: “Look, they might target you with bouncers but take a few blows on the body. It’s fine. Take some bullets for your country”. It was that kind of a surreal day.

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Where does one start to describe it? The moment that Virat Kohli was done in by a snarling lifter or the continuing vulnerability of the Indian top-order that kept nicking, or how the game seemed to be heading towards a tame surrender when Bumrah and co. refused to fade away. It was a day of victory for India’s newcomers: be it Rana with the ball or Nitish Reddy with the bat.

But perhaps, it’s apt to start with a warm scene at tea between Matthew Hayden and his daughter, who works with the broadcasters. In an elevator, she was running through her script for the tea-time show, with Hayden nodding fatherly when he suddenly stirred to interject, ‘say an absolute dominant show from Australia but we won’t know unless both teams bat on the strip’. Couple of minutes later, he was back to being a father, taking off his blazer and covering his daughter as they stood near the boundary line for the show to start. The former aggressive opening batsman proved right, obviously. Perhaps he was wary about Australia’s iffy batting in recent times or he was mindful about India’s bowling strength or maybe the combination of both.

The important question of the day was whether this pitch was bad for 17 wickets to fall? Mitchell Starc at one stage, possibly answered it when he said India’s total was “below-par” but how it wasn’t necessarily the pitch but “good balls from the bowlers”. Both are valid, especially when taken into account how batting became easier in the second session, once the ball went softer. There was no spin on offer, neither was there egregious movement for the seamers, but with batsmen from both teams capitulating to the new ball itself, the job was done by then. Hopefully, they can turn around their games from here on and avoid a one-sided affair of another kind: of just bowlers dominating.

Barring KL Rahul, India’s top order couldn’t come to grips with the conditions and were not ready to deliver the first blow of the series. Yashasvi Jaiswal flashed on the up, Devdutt Padikkal couldn’t get out of his shell, and Kohli couldn’t just get going, barely finding bat on ball before a brute of a lifter ended his 12-ball knock. He had stood 6 inches outside the crease, as he had done during his successful 2014 tour to the same country, but was hassled by Josh Hazlewood. Then came the lifter, and Kohli, who had pressed a tad forward, couldn’t press back or take his bat away in time – and the edge was taken by Usman Khawaja at first slip.

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Neither Dhruv Jurel nor Washington Sundar contributed much but Rishabh Pant forged what proved a vital partnership of 48 runs. From 73 for 6, they had reached 121 when Pant fell, edging a Cummins angler to Steve Smith at slips. Nitish, though, continued fighting, becoming the last wicket to fall.

It was at that stage Hayden said what he said, but the mood otherwise around the ground was mixed: some Australian fans picking up the beer were chuffed but there were enough – not just Indians but even the locals – who said they were hoping for a tougher, competitive contest. No one wants a tame lame series. But little did anyone know that India would pounce back as ferociously as they did.

It was their stand-in captain Bumrah who had the first strike. Three actually. It’s hard to blame the debutant Nathan McSweeney trapped by nipbacker as more experienced players than him struggle against Bumrah. But to send back Usman Khawaja with a crafty angler and then knock out Steve Smith for a golden duck was rather neat. Even as Smith pushed back prematurely, Bumrah slipped in a fullish ball that also darted back in sharply to trap a lbw right in front.

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Will India continue the momentum on Day 2? ????

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The game was still in balance, then, as Australia had Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh and Marnus Labuschagne. This is where India’s freshest arrival Harshit Rana struck gold with an absolute pearler. Delivered from round the stumps, it came in towards middle and off before it shaped away, late at that, to make Head hear the death rattle as the off stump was pegged back.

It still wouldn’t have been enough. It’s when Siraj sprung forward with twin dismissals of Mitchell Marsh and Labuschagne, with a peach of a ball, that the game really changed its complexion. If there is a weakness in the in-form Marsh of today, it’s the straightener around off stump as he has a tendency, early on his innings, to square-up but still push at the ball. And Siraj produced one such beaut to induce an edge.

He then harked back to the 2021 plan to take out Labuschagne. Back then, India had used the plan to use Labuschagne’s strength – attacking middle and leg line, making his tendency to flick into a weakness. And there was Siraj on Perth, rewinding to that year, with a ball that tailed in late and full at that. Labuschagne tried to flick it across, but was out of position and unsurprisingly was trapped in front.

That’s how a fascinating opening day of the series went. Jolt, sighing in despair, before a remarkable comeback that has cracked open the series. Both sets of batsmen have shown enough issues to be concerned about as a team and about modern-day Test cricket. But Test isn’t over yet and no conclusions can be drawn. No one expected India to be blanked out 0-3 at home against New Zealand and not many, if any, expected them to bounce back as stunningly after being bowled out for 150 in a couple of sessions. You just have to wait and watch how the rest of the game, and the series, unfolds.