India vs Australia

Speaking at the toss, Australia skipper Aaron Finch confirmed that Cameron Green will open the batting along with him. All-rounder Tim is making his Australia debut. He received his Australia cap from his Hobart Hurricanes team-mate Matthew Wade. On the other hand, India skipper Rohit Sharma informed that Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant are not playing Tuesday's game.

KL Rahul, who has recently returned from an injury and played his first series against Zimbabwe last month, says it is something he is working at. "It's obviously something that every player works towards. Nobody is perfect, nobody in that dressing room is perfect," Rahul said in the pre-match press conference here on Monday.

Australia will tour India as part of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy tentatively in February-March 2023, with an aim to win the series in a country where they have never won after the 2-1 triumph in October-November 2004. The side won the three-match Test series in Pakistan 1-0 in March and were held to a 1-1 draw in a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka in July.

With the tough game against India on July 29, Meg Lanning's side doesn't want to take a chance. Also, with the India team reporting two Covid-19 cases, including all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar, the Australian team wants to take utmost precaution against the virus.

The expanded bilateral series will kick in from 2024 season, when India are scheduled to visit Australia. The 2023 home series in India, to be played in February-March, will remain a four-Test contest, a Cricbuzz report said.

In posting a competitive total of 277, Mithali (68) and Yastika (59) played a crucial part in setting the base for the score, especially after they were reduced to 28/2 in the first six overs. Bhatia had shifted to three as Shafali Verma opened the innings, brought in for all-rounder Deepti Sharma. The move paid off as Bhatia played a crucial hand in stabilising India's innings.

Starting the day at 143/3, Ellyse Perry and Ashleigh Gardner went on to share an 89-run stand before Meghna Singh and Pooja Vastrakar triggered a batting collapse. With the new ball just nine deliveries away, Ashleigh, given a life at 20, was out with Mithali Raj pulling off a diving catch at mid-off off Deepti Sharma. Meghna took her maiden Test wicket with a lovely outswinger to get Annabel Sutherland caught behind. Four overs later, Meghna had her second wicket of the day with an inswinger trapping Sophie Molineux lbw.

Pooja and veteran fast bowler Jhulan Goswami were the stars for India with the ball on Saturday as the home team were reduced to 143/4 in 60 overs at stumps on the third day, still needing 85 runs to avoid follow-on as they chase India wom'n's first innings score of 377/8 declared. However, enforcing a follow-on remains a tall order for India, with Australia trailing them by just 234 runs.

After India declared their innings at 377/8, Jhulan gave the tourists a great start by hitting the top of Beth Mooney's off-stump as the batter tried to swing through the leg-side. Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning stitched a 49-run partnership for the second wicket before Jhulan had Alyssa nicking behind to keeper Taniya Bhatia in her second spell.

India were cruising at 276/5 when the umpires called off play for the day, following a century by opener Smriti Mandhana, the first ton by an Indian woman player in Australia when heavy rain stopped play. It continued to rain for the next hour or so thus. The umpires inspected the ground at 8.45 pm local time but it was not possible to start play as the outfield needed more than a few hours to dry.