Adelaide Test Day 1: Opening woes as Prithvi Shaw goes for duck, Mayank 17; India 41/2 at end of session 1

It was not the best of starts for Team India as Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara attempted to steady the ship as India scored 41/2 at tea on Day 1 of the first Test match between India and Australia at the Adelaide today.

Opening batsman Prithvi Shaw, who was selected over another opener Shubman Gill for the first Test, fell for a duck in shocking fashion on the second ball of India’s innings to Australian pacer Mitchell Starc.

Later on, his opening partner Mayank Agarwal was dismissed on 17 (40) by star all-rounder Pat Cummins.

Cheteshwar Pujara was on 17 runs of 88 balls at a strike rate of 19.32! While captain Kohli was on 5 runs as tea was called.

Earlier, India skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat against Australia in the first Test of the four-match series beginning Thursday at the Adelaide Oval.

“We are going to have a bat. It looks a nice wicket, nice and hard. Runs on the board is priceless, more so away from home. Hopefully, we can put pressure on them. We’ve prepared really well and have played a couple of tour games as well,” said Kohli.

India had already announced their playing XI on Wednesday for the pink-ball Test, choosing Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal as openers.

“We had everything clear on our end, that’s why we announced our team yesterday. It was pretty okay. It wasn’t that strange (their first pink ball Test at home). The evening sessions are going to be more challenging. Few changes here and there. But this is a different challenge,” he added.

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