India crush Australia in first test to silence critics

“I am very happy. We were under pressure in the first innings but the way we responded was great,” said stand-in skipper Bumrah.

“We prepared really well. I told everyone to have confidence in your ability.”

It was a stunning comeback for India, who came to Australia after an embarrassing 3-0 home defeat to New Zealand.

With little hope of defending the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which they have held since 2017, they head into the second day-night Test in Adelaide next week with a huge psychological advantage with the return of skipper Rohit Sharma.

This impressive victory was India’s second in Perth and their first since their victory at the WACA Ground in 2008.

“It was quite disappointing. The preparation was good, all the innings were good, it was pretty decent looking as a lot of things didn’t go right,” said Australia captain Pat Cummins.

“You want to ride again, but we will rest for a few days and train in Adelaide.

“We didn’t give ourselves a chance in a few different aspects, like finishing the first day with the bat.

“There will be a lot of conversations about what we could have done better in the same circumstances.”

Under Bumrah’s makeshift captaincy, India have dominated an aging side that is currently facing scrutiny for their failure to fire.

Responding to India’s 150 in the first innings with a score of 104, the home team’s bowling attack had no response to impressive young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal’s magnificent 161 and Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 100.

Superstar batsman Kohli came into the five-match series under pressure.

“Jaiswal’s best Test innings so far, he left the ball well,” said 22-year-old Bumrah.

“I didn’t see Virat being out of form; it’s difficult to judge on difficult pitches. But he was good in the nets.”

Having long relied on a big score or partnership to get themselves out of tough situations, Australia’s batting line-up was mostly lacking in intelligence.

They delivered again on Monday as India set a big target for them.

The team exploded in the last 30 minutes of Sunday’s match and went on to score 12-3 with Usman Khawaja making three and Steve Smith yet to score.

Khawaja added just one when he mistimed Siraj’s shot and took a huge lead.

Goalkeeper Rishabh Pant, who became the most expensive player in the history of the Indian Premier League in the lucrative auction of the Twenty20 tournament on Sunday, has backed out.

Head survived a loud lbw shout on seven, a review revealed he was missing leg stump and he struggled to hit seven boundaries for his 17th Test half-century.

At the other end, Smith was felled by a Harshit Rana bouncer that struck his midsection and required a spell lying on the ground to recover.

He was able to get up and continue playing and, like Head, passed an lbw review for 12.

But their partnership was ended by Siraj and Pant once again took a fine catch after Smith was successful with a delivery he had to play on 17.

Head teamed up with Marsh in an 82-run stand to temporarily boost home hopes before Bumrah worked his magic again.

A largely untroubled Head, which looked destined for a century, feathered towards Pant with a thunderous double punch that showed how happy Bumrah was with the breakthrough.

All-rounder Marsh kept the score going with Alex Carey but fell for 47, dragging a wide Nitish Kumar Reddy delivery to the stumps.

Mitchell Starc, the top scorer in the first innings, was 12 behind before the tail was closed early in the final session.