IND vs AUS 3rd Test: It is pretty difficult, to sum up, the day and how it has gone for both sides. The second day was like a pendulum that constantly kept on swinging for both sides and as far as the pitch is concerned, it has been vicious and tested the players, their skills and constantly kept them under the pump. When play resumed on the 2nd day of the Test match, the Aussies were in firm control and threatened to take the game away from India.
Handscomb and Green had looked pretty solid in the last session of the first day and they carried the same tempo on the second day as well. India had some other plans and much to their good fortune, they had an ample amount of purchase from the turf. The floodgates opened for Australia after India dismissed both Handscomb and Cameron Green. Wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey tried to play the conventional sweep just to throw India off-guard, but the Indian bowlers were too good for him. Umesh Yadav in particular was fantastic as he scalped three wickets in the form of Cameron Green, Mitchell Starc, and Todd Murphy. Australia ended with a lead of 88 odd runs.
Interestingly the last 6 Australian wickets fell for 11 runs. When Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill walked out to bat, they had their jobs cut out. Both the openers tried to counter and battle the spinning conditions, but Lyon and his skills with the red cherry were just too good for the Indian openers. Kohli and Jadeja too couldn't contribute but, they tried to get their eyes in and bail India out, but they fell to the temptation of breaking free. Noticeably, India completely altered their game plans after tea. Both Pujara and Iyer came out with a lot of positive intent. Iyer in particular tried to counter-attack and put pressure back on the Aussies but soon fell prey to Mitchell Starc. Despite Cheteshwar Pujara's best efforts to get India to a fightable total, India fell short of what could be a decent total. KS Bharat and Ravi Ashwin were done by the Aussie bowlers and then Pujara fell. The final two wickets were gone quickly as India ended at 160, with only a 75-run lead. Nathan Lyon was the star of the pack as he grabbed eight wickets in the innings. Australia need only 76 runs to win and shall not find it difficult on Friday.
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India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith (c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann
