BRISBANE, Australia — The third cricket test match between Australia and India suffered from rain interruptions again, allowing Australia to bowl only 17 overs on the day. Despite the limited play, Australia’s pace bowlers were highly effective, leading to India’s dramatic collapse to 51-4 by the end of day three, leaving them significantly behind on the scoreboard—394 runs adrift of the hosts.
After Australia concluded their first innings at 445 all out on Monday morning, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood quickly put India on the back foot with a powerful opening spell at the Gabba. Starc delivered an impressive performance, claiming 2 wickets for 25 runs, dismissing both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill within his first two overs to set a challenging tone for India. Hazlewood, who returned to the team after overcoming a side strain, took the crucial wicket of Virat Kohli just before rain led to an early lunch break, leaving India reeling at 22-3.
Starc’s wicket of Jaiswal (4) was particularly noteworthy, as he needed just two balls to replicate his first-ball dismissal from the previous test. Jaiswal initially managed to push the first delivery to the boundary, but he then offered a simple catch to Mitch Marsh at midwicket on the next delivery. Following this, Starc struck again, with Marsh executing an impressive dive to catch Shubman Gill (1), further plunging India into trouble at 7-2.
Hazlewood, with renewed vigor, forced Kohli into a catch that was taken just as rain started to pass through, which sent the veteran back to the pavilion and left India further weakened. As play resumed, Australian captain Pat Cummins quickly made his mark by dismissing Rishabh Pant, leaving India at 44-4.
Rohit Sharma joined KL Rahul at the crease, but rain disrupted their progress almost immediately, allowing only enough time for Rahul to strike a beautiful boundary before the players left the field again. Even as there were signs of clearing weather, a subsequent shower prevented play from continuing. Eventually, when play resumed around 5:05 p.m., only 17 balls were bowled, yielding just three runs before more rain halted proceedings for the day.
Looking ahead, Australia is positioned with two days left in the match, contingent on weather conditions, and require an early dismissal of India for 245 or less to enforce the follow-on and boost their chances for victory. Mitch Marsh confirmed the strategy for the remainder of the test, emphasizing the importance of taking the remaining wickets.
On the batting front, Australia began the day at 405-7, and with aggressive contributions from Starc and Alex Carey, they reached a total of 445. Carey scored an exciting 70 from 88 balls before becoming the last wicket to fall. Jasprit Bumrah managed to add one to his tally, finishing with figures of 6-76. He noted the team’s evolution, highlighting that many new players were gaining valuable experience.
In their previous efforts, Travis Head had an outstanding outing with a score of 152, while Steven Smith added a needful 101, putting together a substantial 241-run partnership after Australia had faltered to 75-3 earlier in the innings. The opening day of the match saw minimal play, limited to just 13.2 overs due to rain, after India captain Rohit Sharma chose to bowl first on a green-tinted Gabba pitch.
India emerged victorious in the first test by 295 runs at Perth, while Australia secured a comeback in the second day-night test in Adelaide, winning by 10 wickets.
