A Test match so silly, so filled with interruptions and sideshows and peculiarities, deserved an ending like this.
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- Five quick hits: Wet and wild final day at the Gabba
Hours after the Gabba scoreboards had warned “severe weather is expected at any moment” and everyone had given up the ghost, the game unexpectedly returned. And promptly erupted.
In a random burst of sunshine and slashing blades, Australia’s top order self-immolated through one furious hour on day five. Why? Nobody is quite sure.
The initial Australian tactic seemed to be to let everyone who needed some runs a chance to get them, wheeling out Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne and Mitch Marsh in that order.
All four came and went with little fuss, seemingly stuck between saving their spots in the team and pushing a fading game along. The plan changed when Travis Head and Steve Smith got out there and started swinging for the fences, but it wasn’t all-out attack until that point.
Australia declared, acting under the pretence that a mammoth storm wasn’t minutes away from swallowing Brisbane whole. Then said storm arrived and the whole thing was finally called off.
Silly. Entertaining, but silly.
In the end, all Australia took from a bizarre day of cricket was a draw and a fresh collection of doubts inside the heads of its most vulnerable batters.
Eventually Pat Cummins and Rohit Sharma had no choice but to shake hands and go their separate ways. There were shades of Manchester in the inevitable demise of this match, with India playing the role of the escapees, and yet somehow it felt like Australia almost got away with one too.
When there was actual proper cricket played at the Gabba the Australians generally dominated it, and there were positives to take from the sodden mess of the week.
Nathan McSweeney’s time at the crease on day five was brief. (AAP: Jono Searle)
Smith’s return to form was welcome and timely, while Head’s imperious touch shows no signs of abating — though his failure to take the field for that brief fourth innings is a concern.
Labuschagne looked OK-ish in the first innings at least, and Cummins himself bowled very well for the most part.
Aside from KL Rahul, India’s key batters look lost at the moment — something that needs urgent addressing before the series makes its way to Melbourne — but that can largely be put down to the quality of Cummins and Mitchell Starc.
But an overall good performance means little if it doesn’t result in a victory, especially considering Australia is working with a razor-thin margin of error after the Perth disaster.
India has now successfully navigated the first three Tests at notoriously tricky venues for visitors while keeping the scoreboard dead level.
Matches in Melbourne and Sydney should be far more comfortable for it than night time in Adelaide or a Gabba seamer, and all India has to do is win one of those remaining two Tests and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be retained yet again.
The weather had the final say in what was a very wet Gabba Test. (Getty Images: Chris Hyde)
Australia will also have to progress without Josh Hazlewood, whose calf injury has the potential to be a telling blow. Scott Boland is such a dependable option that many seem to be shrugging off the Hazlewood injury altogether, but there will come a time over the next two Tests when his absence will be felt.
It’s also fair to say Australia needs far more from Khawaja and Marsh on Boxing Day and beyond. Two players who are capable of being match-winners with the bat — albeit in vastly different ways — have been unconvincing to this point, mercifully bailed out by the prolific Head.
The Big Bash should never be fertile ground for Test selection chat, but such is the buzz around young Sam Konstas there will be implied pressure on the Australian batting line-up right up until the moment he is given a debut.
Konstas is 19 years old, hits the ball harder than Thor and has been stacking up runs this season in first class and now BBL cricket. McSweeney won selection for this series as the safer, more seasoned option but there is something intoxicating about the idea of throwing the boy wonder in the deep end, just to see what happens.
If things don’t go to plan for Australia in Melbourne, particularly for Khawaja or McSweeney, Konstas’s name will be one you hear a lot before Sydney.
Despite the insufferable frustration of this Brisbane Test, it is nice to be able to pitch forward to Melbourne and Sydney with the series still alive and neither side a clear front-runner.
Usman Khawaja is castled by Jasprit Bumrah. (Getty Images: Albert Perez/Cricket Australia)
That is the real gift of this Gabba Test then — a live series for Boxing Day and the new year.
You could argue Australia has edged ahead in the momentum stakes, but both sides do still feel evenly matched, each possessing some in-form stars while nursing through some underperformers and battling selection headaches.
Australia and India feel almost equally combustible at this point, and yet it doesn’t really feel like either side is about to be blown out of the water. There is balance in their respective strengths and fragilities.
All of which is a pretty sound recipe for a good Test series. Through three games — one owned by India, one by Australia and the other by the Gabba curators — it still feels like the best of this battle is ahead of us.
