ADELAIDE, Australia — Mitchell Starc snared three crucial wickets as India slipped to 82-4 on Friday in the first session of the day-night, second cricket test against Australia.
Starc dismissed in-form opener Yashasvi Jaiswal with the first delivery of the pink-ball test, and then returned to send back KL Rahul and Virat Kohli in the second hour of play as Australia finished the session in a dominant fashion.
At the first interval, returning skipper Rohit Sharma was unbeaten on 1 and Rishabh Pant was 4 not out. Starc took 3-31 in eight overs.
Jaiswal was out immediately after India won the toss and elected to bat, trying to flick Starc off his pads. He walked without reviewing the lbw decision.
Shubman Gill and Rahul then added 69 runs for the second wicket. Gill appeared to be in fine touch, despite missing the first test due to a thumb injury, and scored five boundaries.
India was 36-1 after the first hour, with Rahul starting slow again and survived two chances off Scott Boland’s first over.
He was adjudged caught behind in the eighth over, only for it to be deemed a no ball, and then was dropped at slip four balls later as Usman Khwaja failed to latch on.
Rahul faced 64 balls before he was finally caught at gully off Starc in the 19th over.
Extra bounce troubled Virat Kohli as well, and he was caught at slip for seven.
Boland then struck at the other end, trapping Gill lbw as India lost three wickets for 12 runs across 15 deliveries to surrender its early advantage.
The returns of Rohit Sharma and Gill were two of three changes to the India lineup that convincingly won the series-opening match in Perth last week.
Australia made one change, with Boland recalled to replace the injured Josh Hazlewood, who sustained a side strain while taking match figures of 5-57 from 34 overs in Australia’s heavy 295-run defeat in the first test.
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