KL Rahul: was India’s only hope in the third Test against Australia. He was holding the fort at one end while all the big names in the Indian batting lineup kept getting dismissed. But on this tricky Gabba pitch, you never know when the bounce of the ball will get you. Even a well-set KL Rahul fell victim to this, getting caught at slip off Nathan Lyon’s swinging delivery. It was a fantastic catch by Steve Smith, who dived brilliantly to take it. He had dropped Rahul’s catch earlier in the day, but this time he made no mistake. Rahul, who had batted for 139 balls and scored 84 runs with 8 fours, was dismissed. It looked like Smith was expecting that catch, watch the video to see it! Just like the second Test, the Indian team is struggling against Australia in this match. The top order has been collapsing against the Aussie bowlers. Yashasvi Jaiswal was dismissed in the first over by Mitchell Starc, while Shubman Gill was caught by Mitchell Marsh at point. All the Indian batsmen have been caught behind the wicket so far. Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Rohit Sharma were all caught by wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
At lunch on the third day, India had scored 167 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 49 overs. Ravindra Jadeja (41 runs) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (7 runs) were batting. India needs 79 runs to avoid the follow-on and has 4 wickets remaining in reply to Australia’s 445 runs. Here are the playing XIs for the third Test: India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma (captain), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep Australia: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins (captain), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
