#INDvAUS | WATCH: How Virat Kohli used his trump card Umesh Yadav

Ravichandran Ashwin opening the bowling in Test cricket isn't novelty. After all, the pitches in India's home season so far have often necessitated the off-spinner to bowl with the new ball in the longer format, more so on Day Four or Five.

But Thursday was different. It was the first morning of the first Test. Whatever little there had to be for the fast bowlers with the new ball, it had to be in the first half hour of the first session.

Yet, India captain Virat Kohli chose to throw the ball to Ashwin in the second over. Unlike in the past, though, the condition of the pitch had minimal role to play in the thought process.

The move, the mastermind of which was Kohli, had four clear advantages.

One, it caught Australian openers David Warner and Matt Renshaw a bit off guard and made them do what they wouldn't be too used to: facing spin with the new ball.

Two, it showed the opposition that India was attacking them with their biggest strength from the word go.

Three, it kept Warner, who loves to get off to a flier with the new cherry against pacers, relatively quiet at a time he can inflict the maximum damage.

Four, it kept Umesh Yadav, India's best exponent of reverse swing, fresh when the ball actually started to reverse.

Undoubtedly, it was a gamble. And a gamble that didn't seem to pay off initially. The Aussie openers negated the Ashwin threat fairly well, with the addition of Jayant Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja as well.

Yet, at 78/0 off 25 overs, the visitors never really got away from the Indians, something the Australians, particularly Warner, can do in the first session of a Test with the bat. More importantly, the guys sitting in the dressing room would've seen the ball spit from the second over itself, which is bound to create an atmosphere of doubt.

And then it was time for Kohli to unleash his trump card.

Here's Umesh's brilliant effort from Thursday:

Umesh came into the attack in the 28th over — just five overs before lunch – and made immediate impact.

Warner, who might have afforded a sigh of relief seeing a spinner out of the attack after a relentless onslaught, got tempted to open up. That was enough for Umesh, who pitched one up and induced the inside edge off Warner to the stumps in just his third ball.

"Umesh has been to known to bowl well with the old ball," India batting coach Sanjay Bangar said here on Thursday. "Even in the series against England, he got a lot of reverse swing. We held him back, expecting that the ball would reverse swing pretty early in the innings. It was a precise plan to hold him back with two left-handers at the top of the order. So, that was the plan to use Ashwin with Ishant (Sharma)."

That precise plan also ensured that Umesh was at his dangerous best exactly when India needed him to be: late in the day with the reverse-swinging old ball.

Thus, he bowled just two overs in his first spell and four in the second. The most – and best – was saved for the last.

In that spell of six overs, a charged-up Umesh completely swept aside Australia's lower order, getting the old ball to move off the air and trapping Matthew Wade and Nathan Lyon. There was a caught behind of Steve O'Keefe sandwiched in between the two reverse-swinging beauties.       

"It was part of some smart thinking by Virat," Bangar said.

"The plan kept Umesh fresh throughout the day, which made him very incisive in his second and third spells as well. It's all part of the plan, wherein you know the instinct or strength that each individual possesses," he added.

The rewards of Kohli's bold tactic in the morning took some time coming, but once it did, it put India firmly in the driver's seat after the first day.