The third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy got underway at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore on March 1 (Wednesday). As expected, the wicket has proven to be a rank turner and if the first session on Day 1 of the Test match is anything to go by, this could be another one of those short Test matches.
After winning the toss for the first time in the series, Team India opted to bat first but it was far from being an ideal start to the innings as by the team lunch was called, the team had already lost 7 wickets with 84 runs on the board.
All the wickets to fall had been taken by the Australian spinners with Nathan Lyon picking 3 for 23, Matthew Kuhnemann scalping 3 for 15 and Todd Murphy also chipping in with a wicket at 1 for 12.
None of the Indian batters could tackle the challenging spin conditions with Virat Kohli (22) and Shubman Gill (21) being the top-scorers in the session but both also falling prey to spin.
However, before the spinners wreaked havoc on the Indian batters, India captain Rohit Sharma was even "dismissed" twice by Mitchell Starc in the very first over of the Test match. But the batter survived as Australia opted against taking the DRS on both the occasions.
While the first instance was of the Indian opener edging the ball to the keeper which happened in the very first ball of the over, the other instance was of an LBW shout on the fourth delivery.
On both instances, the on-field umpire Nitin Menon had called it not-out but replays later showed that he was a goner. Despite surviving twice early on his innings, Rohit failed to capitalise and make a big score eventually getting out to Kuhnemann for 12, stumped by wicketkeeper Alex Carey.