The overcast and rainy conditions in Brisbane might have made the decision to bowl first an obvious one, which is what India captain Rohit Sharma did after winning the toss in the third Test against Australia, but the first few overs had a story to tell.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj kept searching for the swing that the conditions promised, only to find none present as the Australian openers — Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja — didn’t face any trouble in negotiating the threat with the new ball until rain made its first interruption on Saturday morning at The Gabba.
“First five overs, the Indian bowlers were searching for that swing. If the ball is swinging, you have to bowl a leg-stump line,” said former India batter and batting coach Sanjay Bangar while speaking on Star Sports.
Whatever little assistance was available in the opening hour, it was off the pitch; and the Indian bowlers adjusted their lines accordingly after resumption of play.
“When they came back, they were impressive and disciplined in the next 8 overs,” Bangar added.
The Indian pacers shifted towards a fifth-stump line. However, Khawaja (19*) and McSweeney (4*) stuck to Australia’s Adelaide plans of seeing off Bumrah, while taking their chances against the other bowlers to take the total to 28 for 0 in 13.2 overs before rain stopped play again.
Former England captain Michael Vaughan suggested that it was a good toss to lose for the Autralians as the ball didn’t swing and the pitch didn’t show any extravagant bounce and carry to trouble the batters.
“Inside 4 overs and it looks like a lovely Toss to have lost…,” Vaughan wrote on X.
India’s decision to bowl first could also be influenced by the fact that the visitors’ batting hasn’t fired consistently so far in the series, with three of their four innings folding for under 200 runs. And considering the overcast conditions and the expected bounce in the Gabba deck, maybe Rohit didn’t want to hand the Australians an early advantage.
India made two changes to their eleven — bringing in Akash Deep to replace fellow pacer Harshit Rana, while Ravichandran Ashwin made way for Ravindra Jadeja.
The five-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy is currently level at 1-1, with India winning the first Test in Perth by 295 runs and Australia coming back to win by 10-wickets in the pink-ball Test at Adelaide.
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