India vs Australia 3rd Test Day 1 Live: Just 13.2 overs were possible in the first session of the day

India pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, and later Akash Deep, couldn’t force too many chances in the short period that they managed to bowl, with Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney settling in and even managing to hit a couple of boundaries.

India won the toss and Rohit Sharma said that the tourists are bowling first in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Gabba. Rohit further said that Akash Deep and Ravindra Jadeja will play for the first time on this tour. Deep comes in for Harshit Rana while Jadeja is replacing Ravichandran Ashwin.

Rishabh Pant’s winning runs down the ground at the Gabba in the fading Brisbane sunlight is a moment caught in time in the minds of cricket fans, particularly for India. With that boundary, India sealed a famous Test win, a famous series win, and maybe even signalled a changing of the guard as they established themselves as the cricket powerhouse for the foreseeable future.

The Gabba will once again play host to an all-important Test match with a series hinging on it, and more ramifications to the result than just which team wins it. Nearly four years on from that moment, India return to the Gabba for a Test match, looking to recreate the heroics of that famous Test match and give themselves an advantage in this iteration of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Australia fought back into the series with a statement ten-wicket victory at the Adelaide Oval, using the pink ball to run through India’s batting order in both innings, with no Indian batter scoring a half-century in the second match. With the bat, Travis Head was the star in his hometown, scoring a terrific century at nearly run-a-ball as he continued his one-man crusade against Indian bowling. Head’s 140 means that he is now the biggest threat that India will face, and a lot of the thinking before the match will be regarding how to deal with the South Australian southpaw.

Another piece of confidence for Australia is the quality that the pace bowling has shown in three of the four Indian innings so far. Outside India’s fantastic second shift in Perth, where centuries from Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli left Australia scratching their heads, Pat Cummins and Mitch Starc showed that they have the potential to burn through the batting in supporting conditions with twin five-fers in Adelaide. While Scott Boland was also great in Adelaide, they will also be boosted by the return of Josh Hazlewood to the mix.

The greater question for Australia will be the batting. While there were more positive signs with the innings of Head and Marnus Labuschagne in Adelaide, as well as rookie opener Nathan McSweeney slowly finding his feat, the Aussie batting hasn’t quite clicked in conjunction with each other. More will be expected from the experienced duo of Usman Khawaja and Steven Smith, while they will also hope that Alex Carey regains his lower order form from earlier in 2024.

Batting concern, however, will be much greater in the Indian camp. India combined for only 375 runs in their two innings at the Adelaide Oval, and while conditions were threatening, they were by no means that dangerous for batters. There were dual failures for India’s senior batters in Virat Kohli at one of his favourite overseas grounds, as well as captain Rohit Sharma upon his return to the Indian team. Any hopes of success for India will depend on one if not both of those batters managing to battle through and find some runs.

Rohit will be returning to the top of the order as per reports, where he will hope to be more comfortable after looking extremely tentative in the middle order. Rohit has struggled for runs in recent months, and his captaincy is also under fire with four consecutive losses in Test cricket. He will want to put up a solid and silence critics, with the awareness that a loss here would put even more scrutiny on him over the rest of the series.

India’s young guns in Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill have both gotten off to regular starts with the bat, but will know that translating that to a big score is essential against a potent Australian attack which feasts on fresh batters at the crease. With Jaiswal, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and KL Rahul all having shown form, India will also demand more consistency from the batting unit as a whole to try and ensure they’re not behind the eight ball throughout the Test match.

One change India will potentially make is bringing in Akash Deep for Harshit Rana, a move which bolsters the pace attack with more experience and potentially also provides a tougher test for the likes of Head, who could be rushed by Akash Deep’s skiddy nature. The pacer also provides handy slogging at the death, which could give India the bonus of runs from the tail which were so crucial at the Gabba last time out. It will also be down to Akash and Reddy with the ball to ensure that Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj have support in the pace attack, with the lack of reliable pace depth and the under-use of resources hurting India in Adelaide.

Lastly, both teams will have their minds on the World Test Championship permutations heading into this Test as well. Australia know that if they win this match, India will need to win in both Melbourne and Sydney to stand a chance of still qualifying for the finals at Lord’s, meaning it could well be a knockout blow. Meanwhile, India have to ensure they produce two wins from the remaining three matches, meaning they will earn some wiggle room if they produce a result in Brisbane, leaving plenty to fight for at the Boxing Day and New Year’s Tests over the rest of this enthralling series.

Below are a few pointers regarding the India vs Australia 3rd Test Day 1:

– Australia were 28/0 in 13.2 overs at Lunch

– Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney continued to hold out before another rain delay happened in the 14th over

– Rain forced the players off the field in just the sixth over of the day

– India have included Akash Deep and Ravindra Jadeja in place of Harshit Rana and Ravichandran Ashwin

– India won the toss and chose to bowl first

– Australia have brought Josh Hazlewood back in their Playing XI

– India are likely to make 2 changes, with Akash Deep and Washington Sundar/Ravindra Jadeja coming in for Harshit Rana and Ravichandran Ashwin.

– India have fond memories of this venue, for it was at this very stadium four years back that they scripted a heist for the ages.