It was an interesting start to the Boxing Day Test match between Australia and India at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. The 19-year-old debutant, Sam Konstas, took the attack to Jasprit Bumrah and co. with some of the most unorthodox and audacious shots of the day. He scored 60 runs off 65 balls as Australia ended the day with 311 runs for the loss of six wickets.
India made some big changes in the playing XI. Shubman Gill was dropped from this Test match, and Washington Sundar replaced him in the XI. It looked likely that captain Rohit Sharma would be back in the top order after batting at number six in the last two Test matches.
Abhishek Nayar confirmed Rohit Sharma’s batting position
After the end of the day’s play, India’s assistant coach confirmed that the Indian captain would be opening the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal at the MCG and KL Rahul would bat at number three. “Rohit will come up in the order and more likely than not he will open the innings for us,” Nayar said to the reporters on Thursday, December 26.
The Indian captain is also under tremendous pressure as the captain of the Test team, as the team has not won the last four Test matches under his captaincy, having lost four out of those five. Moreover, he is also under pressure with the bat, as he managed to score just 19 runs from three innings in the Brisbane and Adelaide Tests at an average of 6.33 with a top score of 10.
Nayar also talked about the decision to leave Gill out of the playing XI for this Test match. The assistant coach said that he has not been dropped, but just the lineup has been changed keeping in mind the team combination. “I feel for Shubman but he understands. He’s not really dropped, just couldn’t find his way in the combination,” Nayar said.
At the end of Day’s play, Steve Smith is unbeaten on 68 runs off 111 balls, and Pat Cummins is unbeaten on eight runs off 17 balls. Marnus Labuschagne scored 72 runs off 145 deliveries. Jasprit Bumrah has scalped three wickets. Akash Deep and Ravindra Jadeja have picked up one wicket each.
