Atrocious shot selection by the top-order batters, including Virat Kohli, left India reeling at 48 for four at tea on a rain-marred day three of the third Test against Australia here on Monday.
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc struck twice and Josh Hazlewood once as India took lunch at 22 for three after Australia racked up 445 in their first innings.
Pat Cummins got the big wicket of Rishabh Pant in the second session to make things worse for the Indians.
Rahul was batting on 30 at tea break, while skipper Rohit Sharma was yet to open his account.
Returning to the middle after the lunch break, Rahul and Pant negotiated a hostile spell of fast bowling from the duo of Starc and Hazlewood before heavy showers once again interrupted the proceedings.
When Hazlewood was operating, he had three slips and a gully for Pant instead of four men in the slip cordon and a gully for Rahul.
Starc had three slips, and two gullies when he held the red cherry in his hand.
During that phase of play in the second session, only one fielder stood ahead of the wicket: the man at mid-off.
Starc sent Yashasvi Jaiswal packing in the second ball of the India innings. Then, Shubman Gill was dismissed before Hazlewood took the wicket of Kohli as the visitors faced another disastrous batting stint after their failures in Adelaide.
Jaiswal had been out caught by Marsh at short midwicket while he attempted to clip off his pads a half-volley from the left-arm paceman.
Gill was sent back when Marsh pulled off a brilliant catch in the slip cordon off the bowling of Starc after the India number three played away from the body.
Kohli was dismissed in what has now become a familiar scene as he once again chased a length delivery outside off before nicking it to Alex Carey.
Starc too had his hand in the wicket of Kohli. With KL Rahul pulling a short ball from Hazlewood to long leg, Starc dived to save what appeared to be a certain boundary, bringing the former Indian captain back on strike. Kohli was dismissed off the very next delivery.
The Australians knew of this, and some of them have been seen running up towards the left-arm pacer, the big wicket along with him.
This occurred right after Hazlewood's full-length ball towards outside off-stump of Kohli. Instead of letting the ball go out, Kohli tried for a drive, and by virtue of that outside edge which saw him walking off.
The fourth time Kohli is dismissed, indeed, in this fashion.
Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah continued doing the heavy lifting as Australia added 40 runs to their overnight score of 405 for seven.
Carey played a fine innings of 70 before becoming the last man to get out.
With two slips and a gully, Bumrah started the proceedings with a 21-over old ball and began with a maiden.
Batting on 45 overnight, Carey swept a Ravindra Jadeja delivery for a boundary towards fine-leg to reach his half-century off just 53 balls.
Bumrah came back to bowl another maiden over before Mitchell Starc decided to get down on one knee to slog sweep Jadeja for a six over square leg.
For someone who is known for keeping one end tight with his accurate bowling, Jadeja was going at five runs an over, and the seasoned left-arm spinner's profligacy put additional burden on a strained pace attack.
The surface at Gabba offered a bit of turn and bounce but Jadeja was guilty of bowling too straight to the left-handers.
Showing intent to score his runs quickly, Starc hit Bumrah over mid-wicket for a boundary, but four balls later, the Indian pace spearhead induced a faint edge from the blade of the pacer and it went through to Pant.
It was Bumrah's sixth wicket of the innings, 18th of the series and 50th on Australian shores.
Mohammed Siraj sent down the final ball that got Nathan Lyon playing down the wrong line. Akash Deep, who could not get his name in the wicket's column even though he troubled the likes of centurions Travis Head and Steve Smith on the second day, finally got a reward for his toil when he had Carey caught in the deep to mark the end of the Australian first innings.
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