Rohit Sharma (12), Ravindra Jadeja (04) and Shreyas Iyer (0) were dismissed trying to adopt an aggressive approach. Virat Kohli (22 off 52 balls) looked in good touch but was tripped by Todd Murphy in the dying moments of the session. Amazing bowling from left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhneman and experienced off-spinner Nathan Lyon. After winning the toss for the first time in the series, Indian captain Rohit decided to bat first as expected.
Shubman Gill was included in the playing XI in place of out-of-form Lokesh Rahul, while Umesh Yadav was given a chance by resting Mohammed Shami. Australia included Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green in the playing XI, recovering from injury. Starc troubled Rohit on swinging balls in the very first over. The very first ball took a slight edge off Rohit’s bat but Australia didn’t take DRS.
Three balls later, an inside ball from Starc hit Rohit’s pad and this time also Australia did not resort to DRS, while replays showed that the ball would have hit the off-stump. Australia tried a spinner in the form of Kuhneman in the sixth over and he turned the ball quickly. Rohit missed the last ball of his over in an attempt to play forward and was stumped by wicketkeeper Alex Carey. Kuhneman then got Gill (21) caught in the slip by skipper Steve Smith.
Cheteshwar Pujara (01) was bowled by Lion’s fast-spinning ball from the off side after playing just four balls. The ball also remained a little low. Jadeja avoided lbw by resorting to DRS on Lion’s ball but played the very next ball to Kuhnemann at short extra cover, leaving India at 44 for four. Iyer returned to the pavilion after playing Kuhneman’s ball on the wickets, due to which India lost half of its team in the opening hour itself. After this, other batsmen also came and returned after getting out.
When Virat Kohli got out after scoring 22 runs, SK Bharat’s innings was reduced to 17 runs. Ashwin 3, Umesh Yadav hit 2 sixes, but was able to score 17 runs. Mohammad Siraj was run out as the last wicket.