Indore: The debate of KL Rahul vs Shubman Gill for the opening slot in the Indian batting lineup found a new answer on Wednesday (1 March) with the latter being selected for the third India vs Australia Test. Another change for the hosts sees Umesh Yadav coming in for Mohammed Shami in a like-for-like swap for seamers.
Live cricket: India vs Australia 3rd Test Day 1 Live
India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat in Indore. Hosts lead the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-0 and a win here would guarantee a place in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Australia, likely opponents in the WTC final, also made two changes with Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green coming in for Pat Cummins and David Warner. Both Warner and Cummins have returned home for different reasons.
In the absence of Cummins, Australia are being captained by Steve Smith in the match.
Starc made an immediate impact to the proceedings but had nothing to show for it. He had Rohit Sharma dismissed twice – edged and leg before – in the first over but on both occasions, the umpire gave not out and Australia didn’t go for the review.
On the first ball of the Test at Holkar Stadium, a good length ball took an outside edge which carried comfortably. Trio of Starc, wicketkeeper Alex Carey and Smith conferred but opted against reviewing. UltraEdge, however, confirmed the spike on second looking.
On the fourth ball of the over, Rohit moved forward and the swing of the ball beat the inside edge, struck the India skipper on to the back pad before going to Carey. In full flow, it looked like height would have been an issue. But the DRS confirmed it wasn’t the case with all three reds on leg before.
Australia, however, can take heart from the fact that Rohit’s stay in the middle didn’t last long. He was stumped by Carey off Matthew Kuhnemann for 12 runs to not trouble the scorers, or visitors, all that much.
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