Debutant Natarajan shines as Australia score 274/5 courtesy Labuschagne ton
Brisbane: The incredible underdog fairytale of Thangarasu Natarajan got better with his twin strikes on debut headlining a commendable effort from an inexperienced Indian bowling attack, which reduced Australia to 274 for 5 despite a stylish hundred from Marnus Labuschagne on the opening day of the final Test here.
The Indian attack, with a collective experience of 3 Tests and 10 balls and 11 wickets in its kitty, was pitted against a batting line-up with 59 hundreds.
After 87 overs, the two Tamil Nadu rookies Natarajan (20-2-63-2) and Washington Sundar (2-4-63-1) could hold their heads high for a lion-hearted effort on a good batting pitch in the absence of the injured Ravichandran Ashwin and Jasprit Bumrah.
If tall off-spinner Washington set up a nice little trap to get rid of Steve Smith (36 off 77 balls), Natarajan forced centurion Labuschagne (108 off 204 balls) and Matthew Wade (47 off 85 balls) to miscue their pull-shots after a 113-run stand which threatened to put India in a spot.
At stumps, Tim Paine (38) and Cameron Green (28) had added 61 runs for the sixth wicket and the visitors would need a few quick wickets to keep the first innings total within a manageable range.
The distance between Palayampatti, a non-descript village in Tamil Nadu's Salem, to Australia's modern city Brisbane is 9035 km on a google map.
But add the hardships of a daily wager mother trying to put food on table, being called for suspect action early in his career, not being privileged enough to get a paternity leave (his daughter is already three months old), it's a million miles emotionally that Team India's favourite "Nattu" has traversed.
Getting Labuschagne, who was on a rampage, with a short delivery ensured that Australia didn't finish the day with a score close to 350.
For someone, who was supposed to be a net bowler, India's Test Cap No 300, did well enough on the first day despite not exactly being a natural. He also knows that he doesn't have the express pace to trouble batsmen (his average speed is 130 plus).
He bowled full during his first two spells and made the length shorter when the ball got old and that's how he induced Wade and Labuschagne to go for those pull shots.
Nobody would have blamed a Natarajan or a Shardul or "leader of the attack" Mohammed Siraj (19-8-51-1), all of whom toiled manfully throughout their multiple spells in a battle of unequals.
The inexperience was palpable as Thakur (18-5-67-1) bowled a lot of full pitched deliveries which Labuschagne pounced on in the second and third sessions during an innings that had nine boundaries.
If all the injuries weren't enough, Navdeep Saini (7.5 overs) now seems to be in trouble as he has sustained a groin niggle moments after his skipper Ajinkya Rahane dropped a dolly at gully when Labuschagne was on 37.
By far, Australia's most consistent batsman in the series, Labuschagne batted in two gears during the day.
In the first session, he faced 82 balls and sedately moved to 19 but in the next 113 balls, scored another 82 runs to reach his fifth hundred in 195 balls.
He trusted the bounce, hit some lovely drives and was also ready to pull anything that was short.
During his partnership with Smith, the former Australian skipper was the aggressor but Washington, a specialist batsman till 2016 and now a frontline off-spinner, with the help of his seniors -- skipper Rahane and his deputy Rohit Sharma -- laid a beautiful trap.
Washington had bowled three maiden overs prior to lunch and the fidgety Smith, who is always looking to get a move on, fell for the leg trap that was set for him.
Rohit stationed himself at short mid-wicket for a whip that Smith plays on the on-side. They were banking on the extra bounce that they had seen Washington generate with the white ball.
The plan worked as Smith flicked one straight into Rohit's hands just few minutes after the lunch.
Having lost four of their key players (Bumrah, Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Hauma Vihari) due to various injuries, Rahane couldn't have lost a worst toss as Tim Paine elected to bat.
The new-look Indian bowling line-up kept it steady at the onset removing openers David Warner and Marcus Harris in the first session.
That Australia forced a half-fit Warner (1) to play was evident when he had no apparent footwork while trying to drive an angular delivery from Siraj, which was brilliantly snapped by an agile Rohit diving to his right.
It could be seen that Warner, after his groin injury, was still finding it difficult to stretch his front-foot and get to the pitch of the delivery.
Thakur, whose debut against West Indies ended in a nightmare after bowling only 10 deliveries, achieved success, bowling the 11th one in the Test arena.
It was a gentle outswing, an inswing for left-handed Harris (5), who instinctively clipped it straight to debutant Sundar at square leg.
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Sonia slams Modi govt's silence on Khamenei killing, demands debate in Parliament
New Delhi (PTI): In a scathing criticism of the Modi government, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said its silence on the targeted assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is not neutral but an abdication, and raises serious doubts about the direction and credibility of India's foreign policy.
The former Congress president also demanded that when Parliament reconvenes for the second part of the Budget session, the government's "disturbing silence" over the breakdown of international order must be debated openly and without evasion.
In her article published in The Indian Express, Gandhi said there is an urgent need for "us to rediscover" the moral strength and articulate it with clarity and commitment.
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"On March 1, Iran confirmed that its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei, had been assassinated in targeted strikes carried out the previous day by the United States and Israel. The killing of a sitting head of state in the midst of ongoing negotiations marks a grave rupture in contemporary international relations," Gandhi said.
Yet, beyond the shock of the event, what stands out equally starkly is New Delhi's silence, she said.
The Government of India has refrained from condemning the assassination or the violation of Iranian sovereignty, she noted.
'Initially, ignoring the massive US-Israeli onslaught, the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) confined himself to condemning Iran's retaliatory strike on the UAE without addressing the sequence of events that preceded it. Later, he uttered platitudes about his 'deep concern' and talked of 'dialogue and diplomacy' -- which is precisely what was underway before the massive unprovoked attacks launched by Israel and the US," Gandhi said.
"When the targeted killing of a foreign leader draws no clear defence of sovereignty or international law from our country and impartiality is abandoned, it raises serious doubts about the direction and credibility of our foreign policy," Gandhi said in her article.
Silence, in this instance, is not neutral, she asserted.
Gandhi pointed out that the assassination was carried out without a formal declaration of war and during an ongoing diplomatic process.
"Article 2 (4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. A targeted killing of a serving head of state strikes at the heart of these principles," she said.
If such acts pass without principled objection from the world's largest democracy, the erosion of international norms becomes easier to normalise, she argued.
"The unease is compounded by the timing. Barely 48 hours before the assassination, the Prime Minister returned from a visit to Israel, where he reiterated unequivocal support for the government of Benjamin Netanyahu, even as the Gaza conflict continues to draw global outrage over the scale of civilian casualties, many of them women and children," Gandhi said.
At a time when much of the Global South, along with major powers and India's partners in BRICS such as Russia and China, have kept their distance, India's high-profile political endorsement without moral clarity marks a visible and troubling departure, she said.
"The consequences of this event extend beyond geopolitics. The ripples of this tragedy are visible across continents. And India's stance is signalling tacit endorsement of this tragedy," she claimed.
Gandhi pointed out that the Congress has unequivocally condemned the bombings and targeted assassinations on Iranian soil, describing them as a dangerous escalation with grave regional and global consequences.
"We have extended condolences to the Iranian people and to Shia communities worldwide, reiterating that India's foreign policy is anchored in the peaceful settlement of disputes, as reflected in Article 51 of the Constitution of India. These principles ' sovereign equality, non-intervention and the promotion of peace ' have historically been integral to India's diplomatic identity. The present reticence, therefore, appears not merely tactical, but discordant with our stated principles," she said.
The present government would do well to remember that in April 2001, the then prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, during an official visit to Tehran, warmly reaffirmed India's deep ties with Iran, both civilisational and contemporary, Gandhi said.
"His (Vajpayee's) acknowledgement of those long-standing relations seems to hold no relevance for our current government," she said.
Noting that India's ties with Israel have, in recent years, expanded across defence, agriculture and technology, the Congress leader said it is precisely because India maintains relations with both Tehran and Tel Aviv that it possesses diplomatic space to urge restraint.
"But such space depends on credibility. Credibility, in turn, rests on the perception that India speaks from principle rather than expediency.
"This is not merely a moral proposition; it is a strategic necessity. Nearly 10 million Indians live and work across the Gulf. In past crises – from the Gulf War to Yemen to Iraq and Syria – India's ability to safeguard its citizens has rested on its credibility as an independent actor, not as a proxy," she argued.
She further asked as to why should countries in the Global South trust India to defend their territorial integrity tomorrow if it appears hesitant to defend that principle today.
"The appropriate forum for resolving this dissonance is Parliament. When it reconvenes, this disturbing silence over the breakdown of international order must be debated openly and without evasion," Gandhi said.
The targeted killing of a foreign head of state, the erosion of international norms, and the widening instability in West Asia are not peripheral matters; they touch directly upon India's strategic interests and moral commitments, she asserted.
"A clear articulation of India's position is overdue. Democratic accountability demands no less, and strategic clarity requires it," Gandhi said.
"India has long invoked the ideal of vasudhaiva kutumbakam ' the world is one family. That civilisational ethos is not a slogan for ceremonial diplomacy; it implies a commitment to justice, restraint and dialogue, even when doing so is inconvenient.
"At moments when the rules-based order is under visible strain, silence is abdication," Gandhi said.
India has long-aspired to be more than a regional power and it has sought to serve as the conscience-keeper of the world, she said.
That stature was built on a willingness to speak for sovereignty, peace, non-violence and justice even when doing so was inconvenient, she said.
"At this moment, there is an urgent need for us to rediscover that moral strength and articulate it with clarity and commitment," Gandhi said.
Khamenei was killed in a major attack by Israel and the US in the early hours of Saturday.
The United States and Israel launched a major attack on Iran on Saturday, with US President Donald Trump calling on the Iranian public to seize control of their destiny and rise against the Islamic leadership that has ruled their country since 1979.
