New Delhi: After a poor performance in the first day-night Test, it was expected that the Indian team would do better in the next Test. However, captain Virat Kohli has returned to India due to family reasons and Ajikya Rahane is taking over the captaincy in his place. Australia won the toss in the Melbourne Test and decided to bat first, which proved to be wrong. The entire team of Australia was dismissed by scoring 195 runs.
For Australia, Marnus Labuschen scored 48 runs in the first innings, while Travis Head scored 38 runs. Matthew Wade scored 30 runs. Star batsman Steve Smith was dismissed for zero. None of the other batsmen could make an impact in front of Indian bowling and the entire team was dismissed at 195.
After bowling out Australia for 195 runs in the first innings, Team India, who came out to bat, lost their first wicket on the score of zero runs. Opener Mayank Agarwal continues to perform poorly. Aggarwal lbw to Mitchell Starc without opening the account. But then Shubman Gill (28) and Cheteshwar Pujara (7) remained at the crease.
By the end of the first day’s play, India’s score is 36 runs at the loss of 1 wicket. Shubman Gill (28 runs) and Cheteshwar Pujara (7 runs) are at the crease. Mitchell Starc bowled 1 wicket for Australia. Earlier, Australia’s team bowled for 195 runs in the first innings ahead of India’s fatal bowling. Jasprit Bumrah took a maximum of 4 wickets in the first innings for Team India. Ravichandran Ashwin took 3 wickets while Mohammad Siraj took two wickets. Ravindra Jadeja had one wicket in his account.
After India lost the toss, the batsman who was threatened by Team India was Steve Smith, but India’s star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin got India half-way by dismissing Steve Smith for zero runs. The dismissal of a dangerous batsman like Steve Smith proved to be the turning point for India. Smith could not even open the account and he caught a new vice-captain Cheteshwar Pujara at leg lane. Senior off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin ended Steve Smith’s game on Melbourne’s turn-taking pitch. The batting of the Australia team was shattered as star batsman Steve Smith was dismissed.