Australia got off to the best possible start to the pink-ball Test in Adelaide as Mitchell Starc pinned Yashasvi Jaiswal in front of the stumps of the very first ball. India had won the toss and opted to bat first earlier even as skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ravichandran Ashwin returned to the playing XI.
Coming back to Jaiswal’s dismissal, the young left-hander registered a golden duck for the first time in his Test career and became the seventh Indian overall to get out on the first ball of the match. Meanwhile, Starc created a special feat by picking up a wicket off the first ball of the Test match for the third time in his illustrious career.
In this aspect, he equalled West Indies fast bowler Pedro Collins’ world record. Collins dismissed a single batter thrice off the opening delivery of a Test three times across two years. Hannan Sarkar of Bangladesh was the player to get out to the Caribbean bowler as he could never get hold of him.
As for Starc, he has dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne, Rory Burns and Yashasvi Jaiswal on the first ball of the match and given his reputation, the left-arm fast bowler is expected to do it at least once more before he calls it quits from the format.
Bowlers to pick a wicket off the first ball of a Test match most times
| Player | Batters to get out |
| Pedro Collins | Hannan Sarkar (three times) |
| Mitchell Starc | Dimuth Karunaratne, Rory Burns, Yashasvi Jaiswal |
Yashasvi Jaiswal is among the Indian players to get out on the first ball of a Test, joining Sunil Gavaskar, Sudhir Naik, WV Raman, Shiv Sunder Das, Wasim Jaffer, and KL Rahul.
India’s (Playing XI): KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shubman Gill, Nitish Reddy, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Australia’s (Playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland
