The third test match kicked off at historical MCG ground. The visitor`s won the toss and choose to bat first. There were a few changes made by the team management. A new player, Mayank Agrawal earned a place in the team as opening batsman. Ravindra Jadeja is back in team and Ashwin is again ruled out becasue of the abdominal injury. That Rohit Sharma has come in and is likely to bat at the sixth position is quite astonishing. KL Rahul is out of the team.
Indian opener Hanuma went back to the pavalion early. The novice and debutant Mayank made life difficult for the kangaroos. In his debut match , he scored 76 runs including 8 fours and a six. This was a great inning for a beginner in overseas conditions. He has now made his first step towards securing his place in team XI. Before the start of the match, news in Indian was focussed on this young player and he proved himself as an excellent batsman having relevant skills. Going into a crucial match with a untested pair of openers is a difficult decision for Indian team management. With 76 runs, Agarwal has scored the second highest numbers of runs for an Indian debutant in Australia.
Pujara has once again showed his class with the bat and contributed a solid 68 not out by the end of first day. He went about his work in a cool and calm manner. Skipper Virat is also not out on a score of 47 runs on the other end with Pujara. Summarizing, the Indian team are in a safe and strong position now. They have wound up the day with a total score of 215 for the loss of two wickets.
In my opinion ,the visitors will want to score in excess of 400 runs tomorrow. That is possible only if both not out batsman are able to score centuries. If Rahane and Hitman Rohit make some good contributions with bat, it will be easy to cross 400 runs. It will be interesting to see how Rohit will bat in the sixth position. It is quite difficult to say anything about Pant because he currently looks a bit out of form. We might able to see a good innings from Ravindra jadeja.
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