WOBBLE TROUBLE FOR INDIA

Cummins-led pace attack used wobble seam to attack the stumps more, reducing Sharma & Co. to 151/5 on Day 2

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

TWENTY TWO balls into the first day of the World Test Championship final, Mohammed Siraj had shown India the way. After pitching it in that perfect English length area, he got the wobble-seam delivery to just leave. Usman Khawaja got a slight edge, unsure of what way the ball would go.

Post that moment though, India went away from it. They didn’t attack the stumps more, or, as bowling coach Paras Mhambrey put it on Wednesday evening, ‘didn’t show the discipline they had in the morning session’ (while Siraj does have an inclination to bowl wobble-seam balls, his opening partner, Mohammed Shami, is a more conventional bowler).

While India failed to run with what Siraj started, Australia embraced that approach. Because of that, they are sitting pretty and are favourites to lift the second edition of the WTC final (assuming weather holds good).

Each of the top three India batters — Rohit Sharma (leg before to Pat Cummins), Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara (bowled shouldering arms to Scott Boland and Cameron Green, respectively) — lost their wickets to the wobble-seam, a ball that’s become one of the most important weapons in a bowler’s armory.