-Australia’s Mitchell Starc dealt three blows with the swinging pink ball to reduce India to 82 for four on the opening day of the day-night second test in Adelaide on Friday.
KL Rahul and Shubman Gill steadied the Indian innings after the early loss of Yashasvi Jaiswal but Australia claimed three late wickets to nose ahead in the contest.
Rishabh Pant was batting on four at the dinner break with skipper Rohit Sharma, who missed India’s victory in the series opener in Perth and is batting in the middle order, on one.
Armed with the brand new pink ball, Starc gave Australia a perfect start after Rohit elected to bat at the Adelaide Oval.
Dismissing Jaiswal lbw for a first-ball duck, Starc let out a roar that showed how much Australia prized the wicket of the dangerous opener, who smashed a rapid 161 in the series opener in Perth.
Gill, who missed the Perth test with a thumb injury, played a couple of gorgeous drives but Rahul, at the other end, retreated into a defensive shell.
Retained as an opener after his patient half-century in Perth, Rahul needed 21 balls to get off the mark and got two reprieves in Scott Boland’s first over.
Boland, replacing the injured Josh Hazlewood in the only change to the Australia squad, first had Rahul caught-behind off a no-ball and suffered more agony four balls later when Usman Khawaja spilled an edge from the batter at first slip.
Starc returned to end the 69-run stand when Rahul guided the ball to Nathan McSweeney at gully, looking in two minds whether to play or leave.
In his next over, Starc dismissed Virat Kohli for seven in similar fashion with the batter, who struck a hundred in Perth, attempting to withdraw his bat when it was too late.
Boland cut short Gill’s fluent knock by trapping him lbw in the penultimate over before the dinner break.
India have brought in veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, while leaving out Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal.
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