After Rohit Sharma inserted the hosts into bat. Only 13.2 overs were possible on a rain-hit first day in Brisbane, where India strove without success after choosing to bowl first in the third Border-Gavaskar Test match. India captain Rohit Sharma was subjected to massive trolling on social media following his decision to bowl first after winning the toss in the third Test against Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane.
Notably, Rohit Sharma called it correctly at the crucial toss for the game and opted to bowl first to make the most of the overcast conditions. However, much to everyone’s surprise, the Gabba pitch didn’t behave as viciously as it was expected despite having a tinge of green grass on the top. The Australian openers Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja looked comfortable at the crease hardly being troubled by the Indian bowlers.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : “The overhead conditions are challenging, it’s been wet going into the game. Cloudy conditions, there’ll be plenty of assistance for the pacers, movement off the pitch, plenty of carry and batting shouldn’t be easy. You need to respect the bowlers in the first two hours and then there are runs on this surface. Going further, spin will play a role going into the 4th and 5th days, it’s a bowl first pitch,” reckons Matthew Hayden and Sunil Gavaskar, in their pitch report.
Toss : Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl with two changes in the playing XI bringing in Akash Deep and Ravindra Jadeja for Harshit Rana and Ravichandran Ashwin. Australia skipper Pat Cummins batting first bought in Josh Hazlewood for Scott Boland in the playing XI.
Day 1 : Rain plays spoilsport on the opening day 1 in Brisbane after Rohit Sharma elected to bowl
India skipper Rohit Sharma won a third toss on the bounce in the series, but this time, under overcast conditions, the visitors decided to bowl after having rung two changes to the playing XI from Adelaide. Akash Deep, on of the two players (Ravindra Jadeja was the other) drafted in, had to wait for his turn to get into the contest as the senior pros Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj went searching for the right lines and lengths on the Gabba surface with a smattering of grass over.
Overcast conditions and a grassy pitch prompted India to insert Australia after winning their third straight toss, and perhaps recent history informed their decision too, with the team bowling first having won six of the last seven Tests at this venue. It took a while for India’s quicks to find their lengths, however, and the openers looked mostly untroubled in the first 5.3 overs before a drizzle sent the players off the field, with Usman Khawaja putting away anything a touch too straight or short while getting to 13 off 22 balls.
Interestingly, there was not much swing or seam movement to be had in the early exchanges and Khawaja, in particular, was comfortable in putting away deliveries that were either too short or too straight.
While Bumrah beat the left-hander on a couple of occasions, only 1 of the first 33 balls bowled by India before the first rain break were projected to hit the stumps. The curious pattern to the play also saw Bumrah bowl just three deliveries at McSweeney, a player he’s dismissed three times in this series, over his six-over first spell.
Road Ahead on Day 2 for Australia and India
This was inevitable. With rain unrelenting, play has been called off on Day 1 after just 13.2 overs of cricket. We’ll have early starts for the rest of the Test match with a view to make up for some of the lost time today. 98 overs to be bowled and we’ll hopefully get a full day of cricket tomorrow.