It was a forgettable Day 3 for India at the Gabba in Brisbane, as the top order was rattled for just 44 runs by a relentless Australian pace attack in testing conditions in a rain-marred third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. The “frustration” was quite visible in the Indian dressing room as well, with head coach Gautam Gambhir spotted doing shadow practice, and his act left fans wondering if he was showing Virat Kohli how to leave balls down the corridor of uncertainty.
On a stop-start day, with rain interrupting the proceedings as many as six times before early stumps were called, India bowled out Australia for 445 in their first innings. The home team added 40 more runs to their overnight total, as Jasprit Bumrah continued to do the heavy lifting to finish with excellent figures of 6/76.
In response, no Indian top-order batters, barring KL Rahul, showed the stomach to fight. The Kookaburra ball underwent a change in 2020, with the addition of extra lacquer on a reinforced seam, making it firmer and ensuring more movement off the pitch. Hence, what the Indian batters needed was to spend extra time at the crease and be patient for the initial stretch of the play.
However, India went three down before lunch with Mitchell Starc striking twice and Josh Hazlewood once. In the second session, Pat Cummins got the big wicket of Rishabh Pant, adding to India’s woes.
Amid the shoddy batting performance, Gambhir was seen doing shadow practice in the Indian dressing room, where he was rather enacting how to leave the balls outside the off stump line. Fans on social media reckoned it was intended for Kohli, who was dismissed by the outside-off deliveries four times in the ongoing series.
How has Kohli fared in the Australia series?
Heading into possibly his final Border-Gavaskar Trophy series appearance on the back of a lean run against New Zealand at home, the former India captain did shut is critics with a century in Perth, which even helped him move back to top 20 in the ICC Test rankings. But he stuttered in both the innings in Adelaide, scoring 7 and 11, as ohli was troubled by the deliveries outside off.
Overall, he managed only 126 runs in the series so far, marking is second-worst show against Australia after the embarrasing 2016/17 series at home, where the 36-year-old had scored only 46 runs in five innings.
