India's wicketkeeper-batter Srikar Bharat followed up his dismal show in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series. In the fourth Test against Australia at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday (March 9), Bharat dropped a sitter catch of Travis Head in the first 30 minutes of the game.
Bharat looked unsettled while gathering the ball against the sharp seam of Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami which saw the ball bouncing variably in the early session of play. In the second last delivery of sixth over, Umesh Yadav managed to find an outside edge of Head's bat on the score of seven but Bharat's nightmarish run in the ongoing Test series continued when dropped the Australian opener to put India on backfoot. Instead of letting the ball come towards him, a nervy Bharat was seen pushing towards the ball with hard hands which resulted in the ball traveling between his hands.
However, later Head was later dismissed by Ravichandran Ashwin in 16th over after scoring 32 off 44.
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Bharat's dropped catch was followed by eight byes which he conceded behing the stumps.
Bharat has failed to deliver with the bat in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series 2023 between India and Australia as he has only scored 57 runs in the first three Test matches.
Meanwhile, Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. Rohit Sharma made one important change in India's playing XI as he dropped Mohammed Siraj to bring in Mohammed Shami. Meanwhile Steve Smith made no changed in Australia's playing XI.
“We would have batted first. We know what needs to be done. Siraj is rested and Shami is back. It's always nice to have some time off. We need to regroup as a team, you can reflect on so many things. Not the surface what we saw in the first three Tests, looks a good pitch, I hope it stays the same for all five days,” India skipper Rohit Sharma said.
Australia have already fixed their berth in ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-2023 final after winning the third Test against India. Now, India need to win the fourth Test to confirm their place in the WTC final which will be held at the Oval in June.
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