Australia are dominating the proceedings in the third Test at The Gabba, Brisbane. After posting 445 on the board, India lost four early wickets on Day 3 before rain returned and halted play for a long time. Despite hosts being in driver's seat, skipper Pat Cummins is facing flak for not declaring the innings early considering the rain threat. Former Australia opener Matthew Hayden feels that the declaration came too late on Day 3.
"I sense that playing with the weather is like playing with fire. You've just got to focus on winning the Test match from an Australian point of view. India may be focusing at this point now on just trying to hold in this Test match. It begs the question, what would India want? I sense that this is maybe playing into their hands considering there is going to be some weather over the next few days," Hayden said on Channel 7.
Hayden reckons that in-form Australian players will have a tough time bowling out India twice in the ongoing Test considering rain forecast on next two days. He compared Cummins' captaincy to Steve Waugh's calling him conservative.
"Less likely for Australia to get the ball and take 20 wickets, the better for them. But I'm not surprised, this side over the years has been relatively conservative and it has perhaps stung from the days of Steve Waugh where it just seemed like the follow-on was something you naturally didn't take," Hayden added.
Carey hits fifty
In the first session, wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey scored 70 runs from 88 balls. He was the last to fall as Akash Deep took his first wicket of the Test. Jasprit Bumrah made Mitchell Starc his sixth wicket whereas Mohammed Siraj knocked over Nathan Lyon.
Rahul stands tall amidst collapse
In reply, India lost the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal on the second ball. He played a flick shot towards Mitchell Marsh off Starc. Shubman Gill could not play himself in and threw his bat at a delivery outside off, getting caught at gully by Marsh. Virat Kohli was the third to fall. He edged one to Carey trying to push the ball through covers against Josh Hazlewood. After the long rain interruption, Rishabh Pant fell to skipper Cummins for a single-digit score. Rain continued to play spoilsport and India were 51/4 before the day's play was called off. Opener Rahul remained unbeaten for 33.
