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The luck was in India’s corner to begin the third Test in Indore as captain Rohit Sharma benefitted from two grave mistakes committed by the on-field umpire. Mitchell Starc, who made his comeback into the Australian playing XI, found the outside edge of Rohit’s bat on the first delivery of the match but the umpire turned down the appeal for a caught behind. The replay confirmed that there was a spike when the ball went past Rohit’s bat. Aussie skipper Steve Smith opted against the DRS, handing his counterpart an early lifeline.
On the fourth ball of the over, Starc got one to swing in and trapped the Indian skipper right in front of the stumps. The ball struck the back pad of Rohit but the umpire once again turned down the Aussie appeal. Smith had a word with his fielders but decided against the review.
The Indian skipper added salt to Australia’s wounds on the very next ball and got off the mark with a boundary.
The right-handed batter ran out of luck soon as Matthew Kuhnemann dismissed the Indian captain on the last ball of the sixth over.
Earlier, Rohit won the all-important toss and elected to bat first in the 3rd Test in Indore on March 01 (Wednesday). The hosts made two changes to their playing XI that featured in the 2nd Test. Out-of-form KL Rahul was dropped while Mohammed Shami was rested. Shubman Gill and Umesh Yadav were included in India's playing XI. Australia also made two changes with Pat Cummins and David Warner making way for Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green.
India have already secured the Border-Gavaskar trophy and they will now be playing for a record-extending 16th straight series win at home and a guaranteed spot in the World Test Championship final in June. Leading 2-0 in a four-match series, India are sitting pretty and two wins away from inflicting a humiliating whitewash on Australia.
India playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Australia playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann
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