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India 1st T20I Talking points: concussion sub & more | Discussing 5 key talking points from an event-filled AUS vs IND 1st T20I

What an event-filled evening. KL Rahul’s half-century, T Natarajan’s impressive T20I debut, Ravindra Jadeja’s cameo at the fag-end of the Indian innings, Chahal’s match-winning spell of 3/25 and the debate around the concussion substitute highlighted India’s win in the first T20I against Australia in the capital city of Canberra. The men in blue will now head back to Sydney with a 1-0 series lead.

As often is the case after the toss, Virat Kohli lost the flip of the coin and the selections were a hot topic of discussion. Indians were asked to bat first and they put up a respectable total of 161 on the board. The Indian spinners applied brakes to the Aussie batsmen after they got off to a quick start and made sure India defended the total.

Here are some of the talking points from India’s first T20I against Australia.

Rahul’s knock. Need of the hour or should he bat with more intent?

Unlike how a successful T20 batting line-up should approach the powerplay, India’s approach has been conservative and it is evident in the approach of the openers that T20s are just considered as a shorter version of the ODI format. When KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan walked out to bat, a lot was expected from the duo, which topped the run-getters chart in the recently concluded Indian Premier League.

But, it wasn’t the case. Despite having a long batting line-up, the Indians could manage only 42 runs as they played in a cautious manner.

The focus was on KL Rahul who continued from where he left off in the IPL. The strike rate of 127 was just two shy of his IPL strike rate as he refrained from taking risks but completed his half-century even as wickets continued to fall at the other end.

If the KXIP captain had tried to accelerate during the course of his innings, he might have lost his wicket well before the 14th over and the team would have been in deeper trouble. But with depth in the batting line-up like today’s, maybe he could have taken a few more chances than he eventually did.

Kohli dismissed by a leg-spinner, again!

Since the start of 2019, Virat Kohli has been dismissed nine times by leg-spinners in IPL and the shortest form of international cricket. Teams have figured out this trend and tend to bowl more overs of wrist spin to the Indian skipper.

Australian opted for the same plan and bowled Swepson in the 5th over of the game. But post the dismissal it wasn’t the usual good length delivery which Kohli didn’t read correctly. Swepson bowled a half-tracker well outside off and Virat failed to pull it in front of the wicket, instead it took the leading edge of his bat and the catch was taken by the bowler himself.

Quite evidently, Virat Kohli was himself astonished after the dismissal as his poor performance against leggies continued. 

Impressive Samson, unimpressive Pandey

Manish Pandey continued to bat at 5, the position where he batted in the T20Is against New Zealand while Sanju Samson batted at 4. Samson played a characteristic 15-ball 23 but steadied India’s sinking ship although he would have desired a longer stay at the crease; However, the Rajasthan Royals’ batsman might have sealed his place in the side with today’s knock. Samson batted at a run-rate of 9.2 RPO in the innings which concluded at a RR of 8.1, even after the team scored at 11.5 RPO in the last two overs.

However, pressure mounted on Manish Pandey who had an ordinary IPL season and was effectively selected ahead of an in-form Suryakumar Yadav in the T20I squad. He walked into bat in the 12th over and could last for only eight balls, scoring just two runs in the process.

It will be interesting to see whether the management gives Pandey a longer rope or opts to replace him with Shreyas Iyer or an extra bowler. This is as Hardik Pandya has showed composure to bat at 5, abolishing the myth of him being ‘slogger’, in IPL 2020, as well as in the ODI series where the MI batsman was the leading run-scorer.

Shami’s expensive spell. Should India include Saini or Bumrah?

At the halfway stage in the game, it felt as if India were short by 15-20 runs to what might have felt like an ideal score but the tight bowling made sure they defended the target.

Even as India bowled phenomenally, Mohammad Shami’s spell in which he conceded 46 in his four overs without getting a wicket was not pleasing. Other than Shami, every bowler bowled at an economy rate of less than 7.5 RPO. His 4-over spell was divided in all the three phases of the game but he couldn’t be economical in any one of them, conceding more than 10 RPO in every over.

India rested Jasprit Bumrah and Navdeep Saini in an attempt to manage the workload ahead of the all-important Border-Gavaskar Trophy which begins on December 17. Mohammad Shami might well be rested with one of Bumrah and Saini getting an opportunity in the following two games.

The concussion confusion!

Though various factors played a deciding role in the eventual result of the first T20I, none was as crucial as the concussion substitute. Yuzvendra Chahal, and the player he substituted, Ravindra Jadeja, were both outstanding.

As India named their XI, Chahal was dropped as India preferred to have depth in their batting. Also, the 30-year-old’s mediocre ODI series might have played a part in his exclusion.

When Jadeja walked into bat, India were struggling at 92-5 in the 14th over having lost half-centurion KL Rahul and were uncertain to get to the 150 mark. Jadeja scored 44 runs in 23 balls and in the process he had hit 5 boundaries and a maximum.

But in the course of his innings, Jadeja was hit on the helmet on the 3rd ball of the 19th over. After that delivery and a short break in which the physio also had a look at his hamstring, he scored 24 runs. During the innings break, India substituted Jadeja with Chahal as the match referee approved it as a like-for-like concussion replacement.

Chahal bowled a spell picking three crucial wickets and dismantled the Aussie chase in the middle overs. Justin Langer was seen arguing with match referee David Boon during the innings break and he argued for a while, given that there was a chance that Jadeja was subbed out because of a hamstring injury, but given as a concussion.

Maybe he was more annoyed after the decision as it had a decisive impact on the match.

Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.