Australia vs India: Mitchell Starc cleans up Prithvi Shaw to give the visitors a glimpse of what’s to come

On Wednesday, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced Team India’s playing eleven for the opening Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval. One of the selections that raised quite a lot of eyebrows was that of Prithvi Shaw, who looked out of form in both the warm-up matches, one of which was a Day-Night affair at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground.

The fact that he was picked ahead of an in-form Shubman Gill, who scored a half-century in the pink-ball practice match, didn’t make the fans happy by any stretch of the imagination. Going into the first Test, Shaw had every chance of putting runs on the board and therefore make amends. However, to his dismay, the young batsman couldn’t even open his account.

Prithvi Shaw gets out for naught

After India won the toss and elected to bat first, Shaw and Mayank Agarwal came out to bat. Mitchell Starc, who was coming from a short break, was introduced to bowl the first over and Shaw took the first strike. In the first ball, the batsman defended a short-pitched ball, getting on top of the bounce. Starc generated decent speed to start with, touching 144 kph immediately.

In the second ball, Starc angled one across Shaw from the good-length region. Shaw made a tentative push towards the leather without much conviction. The ball swung back a wee bit and took Shaw’s inside edge. To the batsman’s agony and grief, Shaw’s inside-edge cannoned into the middle stump. It was palpable that Shaw was lacking in confidence to some extent.

Starc, quite rightly, was excited to see the back of Shaw, who has the potential to push opponents on the backfoot with his fearless display of stroke-play. For the time being, it remains to be seen whether or not the Mumbai batsman can score big in the second innings.

Here’s the video-

"If he does have a chink in his armour it's the ball which does come back into him…

"Quite often leaves a big gap between bat and pad and that's where the Aussies will target." @RickyPonting at his peerless best for the Prithvi Shaw wicket #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/4nh67zBcpU

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) December 17, 2020

At the time of writing the report, India also lost their second wicket in the form of Mayank Agarwal. Pat Cummins rattled his woodwork, beating his inside edge. In the 19th over, India were straining at 32 for the loss of Shaw and Agarwal.