Ashwin celebrates the wicket of Shane Watson. (Source: AP)

A total of 408 on the board, three brisk seamers in the ranks and a specialist spinner would have given India confidence while they took the field against Australia at the Gabba on Day 2. Not many believed that visitors would go past 300, but a decent display with the bat gave the MS Dhoni-led unit the early advantage.

After the batsmen did their job, the onus was on the bowlers to come up with the goods. The last thing they wanted was another David Warner ton. It’s not the runs Warner scores, but the way he scores them. The pace at which he scores them. He can take the game away before the opposition gets time to reacts.

Breezy start

We were back to Dhoni’s template of captaincy as the skipper gave the new ball to the experienced Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav. While the duo looked good in patches, they were giving far too many scoring opportunities which allowed both Warner and Chris Rogers to score freely.

Warner was in his zone. Scoring boundary after boundary, and he was well complimented by Rogers who, too, joined the act.

The Australian fifty was up in the 10th over but the hosts lost their in-form batsman Warner, who scored twin tons in Adelaide.

Express Yadav

He was fast and bowled in decent areas, but in patches. There was an occasion or two where he bowled a loosener but came back strongly with good deliveries directed at the batsman’s body. The manner in which he got Warner out was a fine example of what pace can do.

It was not a wicket-taking delivery but the extra pace made the ball to hurry on Warner, who wanted to pull it away. The speed ensured that all Warner managed was an edge, and the speedster drew first blood.

During his spell, Yadav also clocked the fastest delivery of the match. Doing so, he outpaced the likes of Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc.

The Indian collapse

Resuming the day’s play at 311/4, a lot was expected from the overnight pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma. The duo fought hard in the last session of the opening day, and were well set to achieve big scores.

The stand didn’t last long in the morning session as Rahane, after only adding 10 runs to the overnight team score, was back in the hut. Rohit, too, didn’t last long and followed his partner back in the hut.

With two batsman back in the pavillion, Dhoni and Ashwin did resist with a useful stand but could only take the total to 408. Josh Hazlewood was the pick of the bowlers for the hosts, who are already a bowler short in the match. On debut, Hazlewood ran through the Indian middle-order and returned with figures of 5/68.