The Indian team is under pressure against the iconic Gabba in the 3rd Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Visiting Brisbane for the first time after their incredible victory in the 2020/21 series, India were hammered by Australia in the first three days of the Test match.

Not only did Australia score 445 runs in the first innings of the match, but they also destroyed India’s top order, taking 4 wickets for just 51 runs. As India look to save the Test match and stay alive in the race for the World Test Championship final, their hopes rest on KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who survived an incredibly painful start-stop during of the third day of the test match.

India could bat just 17 overs on the third day of the Gabba Test before rain took over the scene. However, this was enough for the top order to collapse and leave India in a precarious position. Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal threw away their wickets by playing unnecessary shots.

Border-Gavaskar Trophy: complete coverage

India ended the day with KL Rahul superb in touch and the newcomer at the crease – captain Rohit Sharma. The duo has a huge task ahead as India are not just looking to save the Test match by avoiding the follow-up to Day 4 of the match.

It would be a huge task for the duo and could prove to be a make-or-break innings for both batters – especially Rohit Sharma who has been criticized for his performance with the bat since the Bangladesh Test series.

Speaking after the third day of the Gabba Test, Cheteshwar Pujara put the onus on the batters, saying there was definitely a way for them to survive Day 4 and then frustrate Australia using the threat of impending rain on the last day of the match.

“Indian batters should look to bat long. Australia will aim for the follow-through, but you can only avoid that when you focus on the present. There is a lot of rain expected over the last two days of the Test match, but there is no need to think about it. Just focus on your hitting. Focus on how you play a ball, a session and the merit of the ball. Being too defensive or too aggressive has its merit. and build partnerships,” Pujara said on Star Sports after the end of Day 3 of the Test match.

Rohit-KL’s England heroics

While Rohit Sharma has changed his batting after the 2022 T20 World Cup, transforming into an incendiary aggressor, he may not be the player India needs at the moment.

Since the historic defeat against New Zealand, fans and pundits have called for a more measured approach from the Indian captain. Sharma, before taking over as Test captain, was one of India’s best batters in the red-ball format.

In fact, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, the duo who will take over on Tuesday (Day 4) at the Gabba, were the architects behind India’s heroic run in 4 Tests against England in 2021.

India played 4 Test matches in this series in 2021, before the 5th match was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In this series, India was leading 2-1 after the 4 matches and it was largely set up by the genius of Rohit and KL Rahul as an opening pair.

When is Rohit Sharma at his best?

Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have scored a total of 783 runs together in this series, with Rohit leading from the front. Rohit was the top scorer for India with 368 runs in 4 matches, while KL Rahul scored 315. It has become common in this series for Indian openers to blunt the new ball attack by simply leaving the balls away from their body and blocking anything. which was bowled to the wickets for the first 15 overs.

The masterclass was presented during the first gear changes in 15th place. In the Lord’s Test match, which India won by 151 runs, Rohit attacked Sam Curran with 4 boundaries, after blunting the new ball attack. The method paid off for Rohit and KL as they allowed Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli to take big runs later in the match.

And maybe that’s what India needs from Rohit and KL right now. The absolute blunting of the Australian attack. Contrary to what Rohit Sharma is saying at the moment, he is at his best when he is not going all out against the opposition bowlers. In 2021, the year that includes the aforementioned series, Rohit Sharma scored 906 runs – his best in Test cricket – at a strike rate of 48.14.

Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh also pointed out the same. Speaking ahead of the fourth day of the Test match, Harbhajan advised the Indian batters to be vigilant for the first hour and a half. The former spinner felt that the only way India could get out of this situation was for their batters to show a little patience.

“The first thing India needs to do is bat vigilantly for the first hour and a half. The ball is new, there is bounce on the pitch. If the batters can play vigilantly, then maybe l “Lower order can capitalize later. What I expect from KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma is for one of them to hit a big hundred. They should learn from the partnership of Travis Head and Steve Smith.” Harbhajan said.

When India struggled on the fourth day of the Test match, in difficult conditionsthis could be a decisive innings for the Indian captain. The spotlight will be on Rohit Sharma, who is the subject of intense criticism, to deliver a magical innings, which will hopefully save India.

If Rohit and KL are able to deliver on their promises, they will etch their names in cricketing folklore, just like Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin did, for their valiant knocks in Sydney in the 2020/21 BGT series.