Australia has taken firm control of the World Test Championship final, piling on 3-327 having lost the toss and being put in.
It was a stunning night’s play by Australia, and sets things up nicely heading into the rest of the week.
Here’s the five things you missed from overnight to get you up to speed.
David Warner’s vital 43
It wasn’t the most important innings by an Australian overnight, but it was a huge one for David Warner.
The manner with which Warner compiled his 43 from 60 balls should offer Australians a lot of hope heading into the Ashes.
When questions were being asked of his form last Australian summer, Warner looked lost.
Minimal footwork, late reactions and questionable shot selection.
Frankly, he looked a busted flush.
But at The Oval, with overcast skies and a moving ball, Warner did what every opener should do — take the shine off the new ball and bat until conditions improve.
“We started quite well. David Warner had good intent, looking nice and sharp,” Steve Smith told ABC Sport, and he was right.
“The opening partnership got things started in a difficult little period. Heady and I then just cashed in off the back of it.”
And although it’s far too early to say Warner has rediscovered his best form — one good innings does not make a successful summer.
But given his average in England is just 26.04 and he only scored more than 43 in one of his last 10 innings when in the UK in 2019, I’d say it’s a pretty decent outcome.
In fact, add up all his scores from the last Ashes, excluding his 61 in the first innings at Headingley, and he scored 11 more runs on day one against India at The Oval then he did against England in 2019 combined.
A good toss to lose?
Cloudy skies, a green pitch with plenty of grass on it in England, with a Duke ball.
Of course you’d bowl first if you win the toss.
“We would have had a bowl as well,” Pat Cummins said having been told his batters would be sent out into the cauldron of noise at a very pro-India Oval.
Good job he didn’t win the toss then.
After starting under overcast conditions, in which the ball was moving and zipping around plenty, the clouds started to clear and out came the sun.
And the runs started to flow.
Australia scored at just 3.17 runs per over in the morning session, which rose to 3.46 runs per over after lunch, and blew out to 4.62 in the final session.
A return of just three wickets after putting your opponents in is not great.
Marnus Labuschagne’s thumb
As any England fan will tell you, the last thing you want heading into an Ashes series is a serious injury to one of your most vital players.
Jack Leach’s back stress fracture has lead to Moeen Ali coming out of retirement as a spin option for England for the first Test, which starts next Friday at Edgbaston.
So the last thing Australia would have wanted to see was Marnus Labuschagne dropping his bat and tossing off his glove after bring rapped hard on the thumb by a ripping Siraj bouncer.
Fortunately, he appears to be OK and was able to bat on, scoring another 22 runs before being bowled by Shami.
Labuschagne is the number one Test batter in the world rankings at the moment and you don’t want to lose the number one ranked anything heading into an important Test, right India?
Where was Ravichandran Ashwin?
As part of India’s reading of a pitch that was sure to be a raging seamer based on its look, the Indians picked four seamers: Mohammed Shami, Mohammed, Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur.
That left room, realistically for one spinner, which was named as Ravindra Jadeja.
Yet, that meant leaving out India’s best performing bowler over the last two year cycle and the number one ranked Test bowler in the world, Ravichandran Ashwin.
Ashwin has 61 wickets at 19.67 in the World Test Championships over the past two years.
To leave out a bowler of his quality was a big talking point.
“I can’t help but think as this game progresses that the big story is going to be India not selecting Ashwin,” former Australia coach Justin Langer said on ABC Sport.
“He’s the number one bowler in the world at the moment and the hardest thing about being head coach is selection.
“They can only go on what they saw this morning and there was a lot of grass on the wicket.
“But my sense is that it’s Ashwin and there are a couple of left-handers in the Australia team.”
Travis Head is special, Trav-ball set to be deployed to win Ashes
Australia is about to be introduced, whether they like it or not, to the phenomenon known as Baz-ball.
However, when England’s batters rock up and start flailing boundaries to all corners of the ground in Birmingham next week, the Aussies more than likely will just say, “Ah, they’re trying to play like Trav!”.
Travis Head has had a remarkable couple of years.
He has made himself an undroppable, essential part of the team in the middle order — a lesson finally learned during the first Test in India earlier this year.
Last time he was at The Oval, Head was dropped by Langer after an Ashes series that saw him score 51 at Edgbaston and 42 not out at Lord’s, before a diminishing return of just 56 in toal across four innings at Headingley and Old Trafford.
Since then he’s averaged 51.65 with the bat in Test cricket, scoring five centuries.
Reduce that even further to the start of the last Australian summer and Head has scored 906 runs at a whopping 82.36 average.
His unbeaten 146 at nearly a run a ball was punctuated by shots of the highest class, driving, hooking and flicking the ball all around The Oval.
Who needs Baz-ball when you’ve got Trav-ball?
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