AUS vs IND, 2020-21: 1st Test, Day 1 – Kohli goes past Dhoni and Pataudi, A rare runout featuring Rahane and more stats

The Pink Ball Test match at the Adelaide Oval began with an interesting day of play which was dominated by neither of the teams. India lost both their openers for low scores including Prithvi Shaw on the very second ball of the game after electing to bat first. Virat Kohli (74) shared 50+ partnerships along with Cheteshwar Pujara (43) and Ajinkya Rahane (42) to put India at 188/3. At this stage, a poor call from Rahane saw Kohli getting runout as India stumbled to 233/6 by stumps.

Here are all the statistical highlights from the first day’s play of the AUS vs IND Test series:

Kohli’s streak in electing to bat:

22 – Virat Kohli has chosen to bat first in each of his previous 22 tosses won in Test cricket; the 2nd longest streak for any skipper behind Ricky Ponting’s 30. The 2015 Bangalore Test against South Africa was the previous instance of Kohli electing to bowl first on winning the toss in Test cricket.

It is also the only instance where Kohli elected to bowl first across 26 tosses he won in this format. Overall, India won 22 of the previous 24 Test matches when Virat elected to bat first while another two matches ended in a draw.

Australia starts with a wicket:

3 – Prithvi Shaw is only the 3rd Indian to be dismissed in the very first over of an away Test series. Sunil Gavaskar (vs Dennis Lillee in Sydney) during the 1981 Test series in Australia and Wasim Jaffer (vs Mashrafe Mortaza in Chattogram) during the 2007 Test series in Bangladesh are the other two instances of India losing a wicket in the first over of an away Test series. These three are also the only instance of India being 0/1 in the first innings of an away series opener.

Kohli @ 500 runs:

505 – Virat Kohli completed 500 runs in Test cricket at the Adelaide Oval when he went past his individual score of 69. This is now the first instance of Kohli scoring 500+ Test runs at a venue. Virat is also the 3rd Indian with 500+ Test runs at a venue in Australia after Sachin Tendulkar (785 runs at SCG) and VVS Laxman (549 runs at SCG).

A rare dismissal for Kohli:

2 – Only the 2nd time Virat Kohli has been dismissed ‘runout’ in Test cricket and also his first as captain in the longer format. His other such dismissal in this format came during the 2011-12 tour of Australia also at the Adelaide Oval.

2014 – Virat Kohli is the first Indian captain to be dismissed ‘runout’ in Test cricket since MS Dhoni during the 2014 Nottingham Test against England. Kohli is also the 2nd Indian captain to be runout in a Test match on Australian soil after Sourav Ganguly (in 2003 Adelaide Test).

Kohli goes past Dhoni and Pataudi:

851 – Virat Kohli now has scored 851 runs against Australia as a captain across 10 Test matches. These are now the most Test runs by an Indian skipper against Australia surpassing MAK Pataudi’s 829 runs. Kohli’s tally of 851 runs is now the most runs by an Indian captain in Border-Gavaskar Trophy going past MS Dhoni’s 813 runs.

A rare runout featuring Rahane:

2 – Virat Kohli is only the 2nd batsman to be run out while batting with Ajinkya Rahane in Test cricket. Rishabh Pant, during the Wellington Test against New Zealand earlier this year, was the first player to be dismissed run out in Test cricket with Rahane at the other end. Until the end of 2019, Rahane was part of 202 partnerships in 63 Test matches but none of them came to an end due to runout.

Crucial partnerships for India:

6 – Virat Kohli now has shared six 50+ partnerships each with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane in Test cricket on Australian soil. These are the joint-most number of 50+ stands for any Indian pair in Test cricket in Australia. Rahul Dravid also has six 50+ stands along with VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar in Test matches on Australian soil.