Dealing with a major first-innings deficit, Australia wants to supply a batting miracle on day three to maintain the Nagpur Take a look at alive.
The Aussies had been thwarted by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma on day two as his hundred powered the house facet to a commanding place.
Debutant Todd Murphy took the primary 4 wickets to briefly give Australia hope it may keep within the recreation with solely 177 on the board within the first innings.
However Sharma’s heroics put India in pole place to take a 1-0 lead within the four-match sequence and its bowlers will probably be aiming to make the most of a batting line-up nonetheless reeling from a day one collapse.
Observe each key second reside beneath with Information Corp cricket author Ben Horne.
4.19PM INDIA’S NINTH-WICKET 50-RUN STAND
Mohammad Shami goes bonkers, taking the lengthy deal with to Todd Murphy to push India’s lead past 200.
Shami and Axar Patel have placed on greater than 50 for the ninth wicket.
Shami has a topscore in Take a look at cricket of 56 not out and is at present 36 off 42 balls.
4.12PM AUSTRALIA WITH NO REVIEWS LEFT
Australia has burned its final evaluate and Axar Patel and Mohammad Shami are piling on the ache in Nagpur.
Because it stands, Shami is 21 not out and Axar 69 not out with India 8-363 as we sort this replace.
The lead is closing in on 200 and it’s a must to wonder if India will even bat once more on this Take a look at.
3.45PM: SLIPS THROUGH HIS FINGERS: LYON’S ROTTEN LUCK CONTINUES
Australia’s woes have intensified following a dropped catch by Scott Boland within the outfield.
With India’s lead now 163, Australia can’t afford any extra injury.
However Boland let a skied probability from Indian tail ender Mohammad Shami slip by means of his fingers over his shoulder within the outfield.
Nathan Lyon has had some extraordinary luck within the innings with DRS and likewise dropped catches.
3.27PM ‘HE COULD TAKE EIGHT’: MURPHY EYES RECORD HAUL
Todd Murphy has claimed the essential wicket of hazard man Ravindra Jadeja early on day three, nevertheless it’s a dismissal that gained’t essentially be lifting Australia’s confidence.
There’s a noticeable improve within the quantity of chew within the Nagpur floor on day three, simply as Australia prepares to pad up for its second innings chasing a deficit in extra of 150.
Murphy’s dream debut has continued although, now pocketing six wickets.
Jadeja shouldered arms to at least one that got here again and took his off-stump.
Fox Cricket knowledgeable Mark Waugh believes Murphy may find yourself with eight and replicate the debut of Jason Krejza on the similar venue again in 2008.
Krejza took 8-215 on debut and Murphy is following go well with with figures of 6-83.
Jadeja was the important thing wicket for Australia, along with his stellar innings coming to an finish at 70 off 185 balls.
However as Waugh stated, the wicket was a blow for each groups as a result of it’s Australia that may quickly have to bat once more on this deck.
Australia additionally misplaced a DRS evaluate after a failed bid by Nathan Lyon for an lbw enchantment.
3.14PM HAS AUSSIE SAVIOUR JUST BOARDED A FLIGHT TO INDIA?
Australian famous person Mitchell Starc has been noticed at Sydney airport, prepared to return to his staff’s rescue in India.
The primary Take a look at isn’t even midway by means of, however Australia’s hopes proceed to fade the longer Indian pairing Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel keep on the crease.
India is 7-324 and main by 147 runs with three wickets nonetheless in hand in an ominous signal for Australia’s possibilities of staying within the match.
There are severe hopes although that Starc will return for the second Take a look at in Delhi subsequent week.
Starc has been bowling at full pace within the nets and has maintained his workloads regardless of having the center finger on his bowling hand in a splint ever since he badly broken the tendon throughout the MCG Take a look at.
The left-armer is a confirmed genius in sub-continental circumstances and vastly helps Nathan Lyon’s bowling given the footmarks he supplies for the off-spinner.
For Australia, they’ll’t get Starc to India quickly sufficient.
Selectors thought-about the deserves of playing on Travis Head as a gap batsman for this sequence, and revisiting the unconventional plan could be his solely avenue again in India.
Australia’s beautiful resolution to axe Head for the primary Take a look at has been put underneath a searing microscope, significantly given the left-hander most well-liked over him, Matthew Renshaw, was out for a golden duck and has now suffered a knee harm.
Renshaw handed a health take a look at after scans and returned to the sector within the center session on day two, however even when he was to be dominated out of the second Take a look at, Head may wrestle to get his place again within the middle-order with all-rounder Cameron Inexperienced a sure inclusion if match.
Subsequently Head’s important probability of a reprieve could be if within the again finish of this sequence, circumstances immediate selectors to contemplate reinventing him as a swashbuckling opener.
Information Corp revealed again in December that selectors had not dominated out Head as an choice on the high of the order, particularly in India, the place he may assault from the get-go and never fear about getting slowed down in defending in opposition to the spinners.
Nationwide Selector George Bailey hinted after the Brisbane Take a look at, when Head made a matchwinning 92 on a treacherous Gabba deck, that Australia could be prepared to suppose outdoors the sq. with the star left-hander in India.
“Pat (captain Pat Cummins) is driving this staff (to) being very, very adaptable,” Bailey stated again in December.
“So I feel there’s alternatives for gamers within the XI to play totally different roles at totally different occasions as properly.
“So whether or not that’s the identical for Travis in subcontinent excursions. (We’ll) wait and see.”
It’s tough to see selectors making any rash strikes on veteran openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja mid-series.
When the veteran pair completed the house summer season with huge lots of, it made the Head as opener plan unlikely.
However Fox Cricket knowledgeable and former Australian nice Brad Haddin believes transferring Head up the order might need been a wiser name than dropping him when he’d been arguably the Take a look at staff’s No. 1 batsman throughout the summer season.
“You’ll be able to perceive why they’ve left him out. They don’t belief him the way in which he begins in opposition to spin,” Haddin stated.
“However the one factor they may have accomplished is put him up the order to take the sport on. As a result of if he’s set and spin comes on then he’s a a lot totally different participant.”
Win, lose or attract Nagpur it could be unlikely for selectors to make additional modifications until pressured by harm or Inexperienced getting back from harm.
Coach Andrew McDonald and Tony Dodemaide are the selectors on obligation in India.
However relying on how the sequence progresses, maybe consideration could be given to transferring Khawaja or Warner down the order to accommodate an attacking weapon like Head on the high.
At age 36, Warner and Khawaja could have possible entered their final yr in Take a look at cricket, however it could be uncommon for gamers of their expertise and sophistication to be shifted out of the line-up mid-series.
Take a look at nice Ricky Ponting defended selectors over the controversial name to drop Head.
“The extra I considered it, the truth that they performed Matt Renshaw in Sydney to me meant they most likely had different plans in thoughts for him,” Ponting stated on the ICC Assessment Podcast.
“Clearly, probably the most speedy plan was for him to bat within the center order for Australia on this Take a look at sequence in opposition to India.
“And whenever you have a look at that, in the event that they’re going to maintain him in, they couldn’t actually afford to maintain Travis Head in both as a result of then they might have 5 left-handers of their high seven.”
Different Take a look at greats together with Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Kerry O’Keeffe have questioned the choice to dispense with Head with out even permitting him an opportunity to point out his wares in India.
Initially revealed as Australia v India, first Take a look at day three: Observe all of the motion reside from Nagpur
