In Burmah’s absence, Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj have been stepping up beautifully. The surfaces through the current ongoing tour has thrown up some interesting variations. Nagpur and Delhi spun, Indore was unplayable, Ahmedabad was flat and now Mumbai has given a track full of life for the pacers.

In the first Test at Nagpur, Shami and Siraj set the tone with two quick wickets early on. At Ahmedabad, Shami again managed to take a wicket at a key moment of the first innings. Now, in Mumbai, with the discussions on flat tracks for the World Cup, Shami and Siraj, along with Starc proved that they can play a role in India.

Siraj set the tone with a beautiful, good length ball to send Travis Head’s off-stump cartwheeling in the second over. Mitchell Marsh hammered his way through the innings, until Shami and Siraj started another procession. In Shami’s second spell, he took three wickets in a three over burst as two of them saw the stumps go flying. He displayed brilliant seam movement, and presented the seam very nicely beating the bat regularly.

On the other end, Siraj continued to keep Australia in trouble, as he maintained a tight line with more pace. Together they shifted the momentum nicely as Australia, who were off to a good start suddenly started falling with wicket in the middle overs. Australia, who looked like they were going to get a really good score, as is the norm in Mumbai suddenly found themselves falling down to 188.

The game didn’t end though. If Siraj and Shami were able to find swing and assistance with the ball, Mitchell Starc would have been able too. The ball was swinging and Starc’s tails were up as he cranked up the pace. He touched 145 regularly and brought out his trademark inswinger to take Kohli and Gill early. He looked the most threatening among the Australian bowlers, and single-handedly kept Australia in the game.

His burst along with a nice supporting act from Stoinis, who took the new-ball with Starc kept Australia in as favorites soon, while defending a low score. Starc’s burst though was not enough with Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul closing out the game. However, the Mumbai Track proved to provide magic as Starc, Siraj and Shami swung their way through and found ways to create pressure with their skill.