Brisbane: Between the grey skies, rain, sunshine and 33.1 overs, India found a way to slip up on Day 3 of the Brisbane Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
The day started with a short shower — start of play was delayed by a brief spell of rain — and ended due to bad light and a light drizzle but Australia used all the time at their disposal to push India into a difficult position at the Gabba.
After Australia worked their way to 445 in the morning session, the visitors slipped to 51/4 on a day that saw as many as seven rain interruptions. If people were hanging around at the stadium, it was only because India’s fragile batting gave them reason to. At close, KL Rahul (33) and skipper Rohit Sharma (0) were at the crease.
The day started off with Australia choosing to bat on even as India, in a bid to catch up with their over-rate, had Ravindra Jadeja operating from one end.
The left-arm spinner wasn’t quite able to get his act together on Monday either. He had struggled on Day 2, and even though he got through his overs quickly, his final figures, 23-2-95-0, were an apt illustration of how ineffectual he was.
The one man who did spare India the blushes was once again Jasprit Bumrah. He sent Mitchell Starc back early and finished with bowling figures of 28-9-76-6. His workload on Day 2 did have many wondering what toll that would eventually take on the pacer but he wasn’t put through a tough session on Monday.
Alex Carey worked his way to an 88-ball 70 and most of Australia’s scoring was done off his bat but given the precarious position India find themselves in, they might be wondering whether batting the 16.1 overs could come back to haunt them. Would that time have been spent better bowling rather than batting?
The pitch was not an easy one to bat on, especially while the ball is new, and the Aussie pacers showed that they knew how to get the most out of it. The fact that all of Australia’s pacers are tall helped them extract some rather disconcerting bounce and there was some swing and seam on offer too.
Yashasvi Jaiswal (4), though, didn’t stick around long enough to find out. He was dismissed off the second ball of the innings by Mitchell Starc. The opener started off the series very well with a century at Perth but has struggled after that. The bigger issue might be his average against left-armers which stands at 17.
Still early days for him as an opener but the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) countries place a different kind of demand on the batters. Among India’s batters, KL Rahul has best understood this and his stays at the wicket have looked good.
While Rahul was doing his thing at one end, the other end was in big trouble. Soon after Jaiswal, India lost Shubman Gill (1) thanks to a brilliant diving catch by Mitch Marsh at gully. And then Kohli fell in a manner that we have seen so many times before — ball pitched outside off, the right-hander chased it and got the edge through to the keeper.
Finally, Rishabh Pant was beaten by the angle of Pat Cummins’ delivery and was caught by Carey. A short period of play (13th and 14th overs) showed just how vulnerable India were.
Rahul was content to wait for the right ball to play his shots and the first delivery after a rain break (13.1) was pitched up and the batter leaned into it to crack it through the cover region. He took a single three balls after that and then Pant fell. The seven-ball session saw two fours, a single and a wicket. India, it seems, want to do everything in fast forward mode.
“I think we bowled really well,” said Marsh. “Today was no different, and we’ve been able to take wickets with the new ball, albeit the second innings in Perth. Our bowling attack has some great bowlers, and they’re attacking; they look to take wickets all the time, and hopefully that can continue.”
Steve Smith, after close of play on Day 2, had spoken about how the top three Aussie batters had set the game up for the middle-order by batting almost 50 balls each. No one in the Indian line-up came close to doing that and no one (with the exception of Rahul) seemed to recognise the threat the conditions posed.
Australia have put themselves in a position from where they should be able to dictate terms and India, the way things are, need to find a way to save the Test. That would start by playing out time and staying at the wicket for as long as possible in the first innings.
