Team India seemed to have heard what the legendary Sunil Gavaskar had to say after the end of the pink-ball Test. The Indian players were seen holding a practice session at the Adelaide Oval ahead of the third Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which will take place at Brisbane’s iconic venue – The Gabba. Earlier on Sunday, Rohit Sharma-led India faced a setback in the prestigious BGT series as they conceded a 10-wicket defeat to Australia in the Adelaide Test. With the win, the hosts have levelled the series 1-1. During the net session on Tuesday, it was seen skipper Rohit Sharma, talisman batter Virat Kohli, youngsters Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal were busy to improve their batting skills.
Gavaskar, after the team’s Adelaide Test defeat, had asked the players to not sit in their hotel rooms and continue to practice the remaining two days of the matches, even though the Test got over inside the first three days. Kohli, Rohit, and others did exactly that.
Top spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were also busy up their bowling skills during the practice session at the Adelaide Oval.
Recapping the Adelaide Test, India won the toss and opted to bat first. However, they had to face the wrath of a moving, erratic pink ball and its mastermind, Mitchell Starc (6/48). Except for a 69-run stand for the second wicket between KL Rahul (37 in 64 balls with six fours) and Shubman Gill (31 in 51 balls, with five fours) and a fighting 42 in 54 balls (three fours and three sixes) from Nitish Kumar Reddy, there was not much highlights from India who were skittled out for 180 runs. Skipper Cummins and Scott Boland also took two wickets.
In the first innings, a 67-run partnership between Nathan McSweeney (39 in 109 balls, with six fours) and Marnus Labuschagne (64 in 126 balls, with nine fours) for second wicket set the platform for Travis Head to impose his domination over Indian bowlers yet again with a counter-attacking 140 in 141 balls, with 17 fours and four sixes, just when Aussies lost some regular wickets. His century took Australia to 337 runs and gave them a 157-run lead.
Jasprit Bumrah (4/61) and Mohammed Siraj (4/98) were top bowlers for India. Ravichandran and Nitish got a wicket each.
In their second innings, India appeared even more toothless as the star-studded top-order and middle-order returned back to pavillion despite starts from Jaiswal (24 in 31 balls, with four boundaries), Gill (28 in 30 balls, with three fours) while KL Rahul (7) and Virat Kohli (11 in 21 balls with a four) failed to score well. India ended day two at 128/5.
On the third day, Pant also lost his wicket for 28 in 31 balls, with five fours. From there on, it was not looking back for the Aussies, who skittled out India for 175 runs in 36.5 overs. India led by just 18 runs, setting Aussies 19 runs to win.
Skipper Cummins (5/67) took a majestic five-wicket haul, his eighth as a captain. Boland took 3/51 while Starc took 2/60.
Set a target of 19 runs, Khawaja (10*) and McSweeney (9*) chased it down without breaking a sweat in 3.2 overs.
