India had an unideal start as they tried to get close to Australia’s mammoth first-innings score of 474, as captain Rohit Sharma was dismissed for just 3 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, after he re-promoted himself to the top of the order in a surprising move given his search for form in recent matches. India’s Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign continues to be fraught with danger of spiralling out of control despite a strong winning start, as a bad morning where Australia’s tail managed to add on 160+ runs became worse as India found themselves 8-1 with Rohit’s dismissal to Pat Cummins early in the second innings. It was another disappointing form of dismissal for Rohit, who half-pull half-flicked a nothing delivery from the Australian captain, lobbing a very simple catch straight into the air for Scott Boland to complete at midwicket.
With plenty of pressure already being placed on Rohit’s captaincy and batting both, social media was quick to react to another failure as the Indian skipper’s struggles in the second half of 2024 continued. India's middle order try to revive innings Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul, who saw himself dropped to number three despite being India’s best batter this series while opening, began the reconstruction of the innings with a confident and comfortable partnership of 43. However, KL’s resistance was unplugged by a dream delivery by Cummins, who landed the ball on middle stump before the delivery held its line and knocked back .
