Strong performance by Australia, Rohit Sharma will start the innings

On the first day of the fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy being played in Melbourne, Australia performed brilliantly and scored 311 runs for 6 wickets in 86 overs. Captain Pat Cummins’ decision to bat first after winning the toss was proved right by his team’s batsmen.

On the other hand, the Indian team made a major change in this match. Washington Sundar was included in the final-11 in place of Shubman Gill. After the end of the first day’s play, Indian assistant coach Abhishek Nair confirmed that Rohit Sharma will open the innings on the second day.

Abhishek Nair confirms: Rohit will open

In the press conference after the first day’s play, Nair said,

“Yes, Rohit will open the innings.”
The responsibility of opening along with Rohit Sharma has been given to Yashasvi Jaiswal. Under this change, KL Rahul, who played as an opener in the last three innings, will now be seen batting at number three.

Increased pressure on Rohit Sharma

This test is very important for Indian captain Rohit Sharma.

• Recent Performance: After the series win against Bangladesh, the Indian team has not won a single Test match so far.
• World Test Championship: After consecutive defeats against New Zealand and Australia, the path to reach the World Test Championship final has become very difficult for the Indian team.

Now Rohit will not only have to improve his captaincy but will also have to give a strong start to the team with the bat.

Nair’s statement regarding Shubman Gill

Nair gave clarification on the exclusion of Shubman Gill due to changes in the team. He said:

“I feel sorry for Shubman Gill, but he understands the decision. He has not been dropped, but he just could not make it to the final-11.”

Gill recently played some impressive innings for the Indian team while batting at number three.

First day’s play: Australia’s brilliant batting

Australia made a strong position on the basis of its top order in the first day’s play.

• Marnus Labuschagne: By scoring 72 runs he gave a solid foundation to the team.
• Usman Khawaja: Played a half-century inning of 57 runs.
• Steve Smith: Remains at the crease after scoring 68 not out.

The Australian batsmen troubled the Indian bowlers with a mixture of restraint and aggression.

performance of indian bowlers

It was a challenging day for the Indian bowling attack.

• Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah: Despite some good line and length, the Australian batsmen played brilliantly.
• Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja: The spinners created pressure at intervals but the Australian batsmen dealt with it well.

Day 2 challenges

On the second day, the Indian team will need to wrap up the Australian innings quickly. After this, the responsibility of giving a solid start to the team will be on Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal in batting.

match equation

The first day of the Melbourne Test was in favor of Australia, but the Indian team has a chance to make a comeback. Now it will be interesting to see how the Indian batsmen perform on the second day.