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Rain and a match-saving effort by the tailenders helped India rescue themselves from a precarious position to hold on for a draw in the third Test against Australia at the Gabba in Brisbane, which leaves the five-Test series poised at 1-1 with two matches left to be played in Melbourne and Sydney respectively, where the Indian batters may feel at ‘home’.
At 74 for 5 in reply to Australia’s first-innings total of 445, India were staring down the barrel at the Gabba. If it wasn’t for the Brisbane weather and fighting half-centuries by KL Rahul (85) and Ravindra Jadeja (77), and a follow-on-saving 47-run partnership for the last wicket between tailenders Akash Deep (31) and Jasprit Bumrah (10*), the visitors would have been travelling to Melbourne 2-1 down.
“Whatever happened today (last day of Brisbane Test), it gave us confidence ahead of Melbourne,” India’s captain Rohit Sharma said, pointing at the visitors scraping out a draw. “We’re aware we have to start from scratch, conditions are different there (in Melbourne), and the ball may not move around so much there like it did here.”
India’s chances of retaining the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) and qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, therefore, stay alive, with an opportunity of playing on batting-friendly tracks in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and the concluding game in Sydney, where spinners are also expected to get some help.
BGT holders India must secure victories in both the remaining matches to ensure their third consecutive WTC final appearance, without depending on the results of other remaining matches in the 2023-25 WTC cycle.
But the focus will firmly be on India’s famed top-order comprising the young sensation Yashasvi Jaiswal, the back-in-form KL Rahul, batting legend Virat Kohli, and captain Rohit Sharma, who, however, batted lower down the order in Adelaide and Brisbane.
Rahul tops the scoring charts among Indian batters with 235 runs, followed by Jaiswal (193 runs) and the find of the tour so far, all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy (179 runs).
Virat, despite scoring an unbeaten century (100*) in the second innings of the Perth Test, has remained off-colour in his other four knocks which have produced just 26 runs.
India’s only opening stand of note came in the second innings at Perth, where Jaiswal (161) and Rahul (77) put on a stand of 201 runs.
In five completed innings so far on the tour, India have crossed the 200-run mark only twice.
The 37-year-old Rohit has also been struggling for runs ever since the home Test series against Bangladesh, which followed another poor run in the three Tests at home against New Zealand.
The captain missed the first Test as he was on a paternity leave following the birth of his son. Upon joiningt the team, Rohit sacrificed his opening spot for Rahul, but could only score 3, 6, 10 in his three knocks so far.
“I have not batted well, there is no harm in accepting that,” Rohit said, while talking to reporters in Brisbane. “As long as my mind, my body and my feet are moving well, I’m pretty happy with how things are panning out for me.”
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