Just as Australia thought that they have successfully removed the cream of the Indian batting order and with Ashwin and Jadeja out of the team, they will be en route to a mammoth lead in the first innings, the duo of Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur threw a spanner in their plans.
Washington Sundar made his Test debut at Brisbane while Shardul Thakur was only featuring in his second-ever Test match. As India was wobbling at 186 for 6, they needed a commanding knock from their tail to bail them out of the quagmire.
What started off with a brilliant six over the deep backward square boundary by Shardul Thakur evolved into a fine matured knock from the medium pacer. Trading the Australian pace trifecta, he easily deflected the nasty deliveries and played the loose ones to the ropes.
The duo crafted a few remarkable strokes that saw them blasting the cherry past the fielders in exhilarating ecstasy. As India started clawing their way back at Gabba, the Australians threw everything they had at their disposal in the blender which also witnessed a remarkably ridiculous appeal from Marnus Labuschange drawing the ire of Australian legends.
Shardul Thakur danced down the pitch to kiss Nathan Lyon’s over-pitched delivery into the stands to achieve his half-century. The shot was a deja-vu of Sachin Tendulkar condemning Shane Warne to the stands.
However, what hogged the limelight in the span of the entire third-day was how perfectly Washington Sundar spanked Nathan Lyon royally over long-on without even looking at the ball.
In fact, so high was his panache that he didn’t even look at the ball after smoking it. To throw in an additional fact, he caressed the delivery into the longest boundary of the field. You can watch the video of the six here.
That’s spicy! A no-look six from Sundar 6️⃣
Live #AUSvIND: https://t.co/IzttOVtrUu pic.twitter.com/6JAdnEICnb
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 17, 2021
The duo also shattered a long-standing record of the highest Indian partnership for the seventh wicket at Gabba as the previous one was held by Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar, and it stood at 58 runs in 1991.
Despite a valiant fightback from the duo of Thakur and Sundar, the remaining tail couldn’t offer much resistance and was skittled out shortly after the departure of the duo. India could only garner 336 runs in the first innings that saw them trailing by 30 runs and Australia scored 21 till the end of the day’s play without losing a single wicket.
