With all the noise surrounding the pitches on offer for the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series between India and Australia, the Indore strip added more fuel to fire on March 01 (Wednesday). In just the opening session on Day 1 of the third Test, the Indian batters were shell-shocked by the outrageous spin on offer.
The Aussie spin duo of Matthew Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon utilised the assistance on offer exceedingly well and sent five Indian batters back to the pavilion inside the opening hour of the Test match.
After Kuhnemann dismissed captain Rohit Sharma (12) and Shubman Gill (21), Lyon got the better of Cheteshwar Pujara (1) with an unplayable delivery. The Aussie spinner got the ball to turn viciously from way outside the off stump and rattled Pujara’s woodwork. The ball stayed low and the Indian batter was completely stunned by the turning ball.
Watch video:
India kept losing wickets as the Aussie spinners bowled in challenging line and forced batters to play the ball. Lyon dismissed Ravindra Jadeja (4) before Kuhnemann cleaned up Shreyas Iyer for a duck, reducing the hosts to 45/5 in 11.2 overs.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma 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 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
ALSO READ:
