Rohit masterpiece puts India in control

The skipper's ton and fifties by Jadeja, Axar helped the hosts take a 144-run lead

Rohit Sharma smiled a bunch and used gestures to convey his fondness for the VCA stadium on the eve of the first Test. He kept shrugging his shoulders as if unable to put his finger on the sentiment, eventually mustering a meek ‘it just feels good’.

On Friday, he used his bat to describe that very same feeling, and suddenly, words felt inadequate.

The Indian skipper’s 212-ball 120 was more art than innings. Justly so, it took something genius from Australian skipper Pat Cummins to put an end to it.

And yet, despite losing Rohit soon after tea when the new ball was taken, India reached 321 for 7. The Indian skipper’s ninth Test ton and support from Ravindra Jadeja (66 n.o.) and Axar Patel (52 n.o.), meant India would take a 144-run lead on the second day of the opening Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test.

Though the Australians, who have every reason to fret about the position they’re in now, wouldn’t be too harsh on themselves because they were mostly only undone by three good knocks.

As for the rest of the Indians, they were all - well, nearly all - undone by a bespectacled 22-year-old with the skillset typically reserved for off-spinners with plenty of years behind them.

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He goes by the name Todd Murphy, and he put all of his experience from seven first-class games to use and came away with a fifer (5/82) on debut. More than that, he made Nathan Lyon, who has 460 Test wickets to his name, play second fiddle, and didn’t look out of place doing it.

The only situation he couldn’t wrap his head around was the ease with which Rohit played him. Actually, Rohit played every Australian bowler as if they didn’t belong at this level.

It’s not that he was particularly attacking, at least he wasn’t as aggressive on Friday as he was on the opening day when he raced to 56, it was just the way he moved in the crease.

There were moments when he gave you the impression that he was toying with the very concept of time as he lazily transferred weight between his feet and executed a stroke with about as much nonchalance.

While his mates made batting seem chaotic and rushed and difficult, Rohit sat at the other end of the spectrum with his paunch hanging out almost as if to make a point for his ‘coolness’.

Even when Cummins’ delivery angled in and straightened just so to send his off-stump carting in the 81st over, Rohit didn’t look particularly ugly. The violence of the dismissal and Cummins’ uncharacteristic cuss-filled bellow didn’t throw him off. He casually walked away knowing it was a job well done.

Jadeja wasn’t nearly as aesthetic or relaxed, but he went about his batting duties in true workmanlike fashion. Axar did the same, only quicker.

And, that’s what India needed all along, but the likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Suryakumar Yadav, R Ashwin and KS Bharat could not provide that.

Of the aforementioned names, only one of them was dismissed by Lyon, the other four fell to Murphy. Add KL Rahul’s dismissal from Thursday and Murphy ended up giving his family in the stands a gift they didn’t know they wanted.

Rohit, for his part, gave the city of his birth a present they needed as the generous gathering sat under an unforgiving sun to watch an artist turn into a savant once again.