(Cricket news) India won the toss and elected to bat first on the dry pitch. Rohit Sharma announced 2 changes as Shubman Gill replaced KL Rahul while Umesh Yadav was brought in to replace Mohammed Shami who was rested. Australia as expected brought in Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green to replace the unavailable Pat Cummins and David Warner. This was the first time in this Test series that Australia had dominated the entire day. It  has come at a really crucial time as India are now under massive pressure. 

Batting first India were bowled out for just 109. The first over by Mitchell Starc in itself was very eventful. On the very first ball of the Test, Rohit Sharma edged it straight into Alex Carey’s gloves. Umpire gave it not out and the Australian team didn’t review it. Two balls later, the Indian skipper was trapped in front but the umpire and the Australians once again thought it was not out. The hawkeye said otherwise as Rohit Sharma survived for the 2nd time. Australia introduced spin very early on and it worked as Matt Kuhnemann got rid of Rohit Sharma. 

Shubman Gill had a good start with 3 really good looking boundaries but was also dismissed by Kuhnemann. Nathan Lyon bowled an absolute ripper to clean up Cheteshwar Pujara as India were struggling at 36 for 3. Ravindra Jadeja was promoted to number 5 but he too perished to Nathan Lyon. Sheryas Iyer was dismissed for a duck by Kuhnemann. Virat Kohli was looking really good despite wickets tumbling on the other end. He looked in control but Todd Murphy came into the attack and dismissed the former Indian captain. 

KS Bharat played a couple of slog sweeps to put the pressure back on Australia. He was trapped in front of Lyon after scoring 17 off 30 balls. Kuhnemann dismissed Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav to complete his fifer. The left arm spinner was excellent as he made use of the pitch perfectly. He kept things simple and was extremely accurate. Before getting out Umesh Yadav did let his arms free to hit a couple of big ones which ended up taking India above the 100 run mark. Axar Patel was fairly comfortable but he ended up getting stranded after Mohammed Siraj was run out.

Australia came out to bat and India started with spin straight away. Ravindra Jadeja trapped Travis Head in front in the 2nd over but Marnus Labuschagne and Usman Khawaja held fort. The pair added 96 very crucial runs as India looked very inconsistent with the ball. Jadeja had cleaned up Labuschagne on a duck but the ball was once again a no ball.

Jadeja’s tendency to bowl a no ball despite being a spinner isn’t going away which is a big issue. The all-rounder did eventually get rid of Labuschagne but only after the batter had scored 31 off 91 balls. It wasn’t a breezy innings as the right hander only hit 1 boundary but he did stay there for a long time which was crucial at that stage.

Usman Khawaja played a brilliant knock as he scored 60 off 147 balls. The southpaw hit 4 boundaries and looked ever so comfortable at the crease. He troubled the Indian bowlers but eventually got out after slog sweeping Jadeja’s ball straight to Shubman Gill at deep square leg. Steve Smith also got a good start but was once again dismissed by Jadeja on 23. Peter Handscome and Cameron Green managed to stay unbeaten as Australia ended the day on 156/4.

The pitch had a lot of turn right from the first over of spin. The Australian bowlers made better use of it than India. Ashwin and Jadeja at times looked too eager to get the wicket and weren’t really patient. KS Bharat didn’t have a good day behind the stumps as he dropped quite a few catches and also let a few balls go by. Ravindra Jadeja wasn’t as accurate as he usually is but he still picked up all 4 wickets. India also burned all their reviews unnecessarily purely due to desperation.

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