Australia’s desperate attempt to bring India’s innings to an end failed and the tail is pushing the home side closer to a 200-run lead in Nagpur. FOLLOW LIVE
Facing a significant first-innings deficit, Australia needs to produce a batting miracle on day three to keep the Nagpur Test alive.
The Aussies were thwarted by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma on day two as his hundred powered the home side to a commanding position.
Debutant Todd Murphy took the first four wickets to briefly give Australia hope it could stay in the game with only 177 on the board in the first innings.
But Sharma’s heroics put India in pole position to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series and its bowlers will be aiming to take advantage of a batting line-up still reeling from a day one collapse.
Follow every key moment live below with News Corp cricket writer Ben Horne.
4.40PM PATEL’S HIGHEST INNINGS
Axar Patel’s best Test innings before this was a score of 52.
But he’s no slouch with the bat, averaging 22.6 from 13 innings.
What a luxury for India to have a player of his quality coming in at No.9.
Patel currently is on 76 not out, which 27 more than Australia’s top scorer Marnus Labuschagne managed.
4.19PM INDIA’S NINTH-WICKET 50-RUN STAND
Mohammad Shami is going bonkers, taking the long handle to Todd Murphy to push India’s lead beyond 200.
Shami and Axar Patel have put on more than 50 for the ninth wicket.
Shami has a topscore in Test cricket of 56 not out and is currently 36 off 42 balls.
4.12PM AUSTRALIA WITH NO REVIEWS LEFT
Australia has burned its last review and Axar Patel and Mohammad Shami are piling on the pain in Nagpur.
As it stands, Shami is 21 not out and Axar 69 not out with India 8-363 as we type this update.
The lead is closing in on 200 and you have to wonder whether India will even bat again in this Test.
3.45PM: SLIPS THROUGH HIS FINGERS: LYON’S ROTTEN LUCK CONTINUES
Australia’s woes have intensified following a dropped catch by Scott Boland in the outfield.
With India’s lead now 163, Australia can’t afford any more damage.
But Boland let a skied chance from Indian tail ender Mohammad Shami slip through his fingers over his shoulder in the outfield.
Nathan Lyon has had some ordinary luck in the innings with DRS and also dropped catches.
3.27PM ‘HE COULD TAKE EIGHT’: MURPHY EYES RECORD HAUL
Todd Murphy has claimed the crucial wicket of danger man Ravindra Jadeja early on day three, but it’s a dismissal that won’t necessarily be lifting Australia’s confidence.
There is a noticeable increase in the amount of bite in the Nagpur surface on day three, just as Australia prepares to pad up for its second innings chasing a deficit in excess of 150.
Murphy’s dream debut has continued though, now pocketing six wickets.
Jadeja shouldered arms to one that came back and took his off-stump.
Fox Cricket expert Mark Waugh believes Murphy could end up with eight and replicate the debut of Jason Krejza at the same venue back in 2008.
Krejza took 8-215 on debut and Murphy is following suit with figures of 6-83.
Jadeja was the key wicket for Australia, with his stellar innings coming to an end at 70 off 185 balls.
But as Waugh said, the wicket was a blow for both teams because it is Australia that will soon need to bat again on this deck.
Australia also lost a DRS review after a failed bid by Nathan Lyon for an lbw appeal.
3.14PM HAS AUSSIE SAVIOUR JUST BOARDED A FLIGHT TO INDIA?
Australian superstar Mitchell Starc has been spotted at Sydney airport, ready to come to his team’s rescue in India.
The first Test isn’t even halfway through, but Australia’s hopes continue to fade the longer Indian pairing Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel stay at the crease.
India is 7-324 and leading by 147 runs with three wickets still in hand in an ominous sign for Australia’s chances of staying in the match.
There are serious hopes though that Starc will return for the second Test in Delhi next week.
Starc has been bowling at full speed in the nets and has maintained his workloads despite having the middle finger on his bowling hand in a splint ever since he badly damaged the tendon during the MCG Test.
The left-armer is a proven genius in sub-continental conditions and hugely helps Nathan Lyon’s bowling given the footmarks he provides for the off-spinner.
For Australia, they can’t get Starc to India soon enough.
Selectors considered the merits of gambling on Travis Head as an opening batsman for this series, and revisiting the radical plan might be his only avenue back in India.
Australia’s stunning decision to axe Head for the first Test has been put under a searing microscope, particularly given the left-hander preferred over him, Matthew Renshaw, was out for a golden duck and has now suffered a knee injury.
Renshaw passed a fitness test after scans and returned to the field in the middle session on day two, but even if he was to be ruled out of the second Test, Head might struggle to get his place back in the middle-order with all-rounder Cameron Green a certain inclusion if fit.
Therefore Head’s main chance of a reprieve might be if in the back end of this series, circumstances prompt selectors to consider reinventing him as a swashbuckling opener.
News Corp revealed back in December that selectors had not ruled out Head as an option at the top of the order, specifically in India, where he could attack from the get-go and not worry about getting bogged down in defending against the spinners.
National Selector George Bailey hinted after the Brisbane Test, when Head made a matchwinning 92 on a treacherous Gabba deck, that Australia might be willing to think outside the square with the star left-hander in India.
“Pat (captain Pat Cummins) is driving this team (to) being very, very adaptable,” Bailey said back in December.
“So I think there’s opportunities for players in the XI to play different roles at different times as well.
“So whether that’s the same for Travis in subcontinent tours. (We’ll) wait and see.”
It’s difficult to see selectors making any rash moves on veteran openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja mid-series.
When the veteran pair finished the home summer with big hundreds, it made the Head as opener plan unlikely.
But Fox Cricket expert and former Australian great Brad Haddin believes moving Head up the order might have been a wiser call than dropping him when he’d been arguably the Test team’s No. 1 batsman during the summer.
“You can understand why they’ve left him out. They don’t trust him the way he starts against spin,” Haddin said.
“But the one thing they could have done is put him up the order to take the game on. Because if he’s set and spin comes on then he’s a much different player.”
Win, lose or draw in Nagpur it would be unlikely for selectors to make further changes unless forced by injury or Green returning from injury.
Coach Andrew McDonald and Tony Dodemaide are the selectors on duty in India.
But depending on how the series progresses, perhaps consideration might be given to moving Khawaja or Warner down the order to accommodate an attacking weapon like Head at the top.
At age 36, Warner and Khawaja may have likely entered their last year in Test cricket, but it would be unusual for players of their experience and class to be shifted out of the line-up mid-series.
Test great Ricky Ponting defended selectors over the controversial call to drop Head.
“The more I thought about it, the fact that they played Matt Renshaw in Sydney to me meant they probably had other plans in mind for him,” Ponting said on the ICC Review Podcast.
“Obviously, the most immediate plan was for him to bat in the middle order for Australia in this Test series against India.
“And when you look at that, if they’re going to keep him in, they couldn’t really afford to keep Travis Head in either because then they would have five left-handers in their top seven.”
Other Test greats including Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Kerry O’Keeffe have questioned the decision to dispense with Head without even allowing him a chance to show his wares in India.
Originally published as Australia v India, first Test day three: Follow all the action live from Nagpur