Brisbane: Travis Head put an insipid Indian bowling attack to sword for his second successive hundred while veteran Steve Smith wore the opposition down with a statement century to put Australia in a favourable position on day two of the third Test here on Sunday.
Australia reached a commanding 405 for 7 at stumps courtesy, a 241-run stand between Head (152 off 160) and Smith (101 off 190) for the fourth wicket after the visitors put them in a spot of bother at 75 for three in the morning.
The Indian bowlers, who impressed in the first session, lost their way to allow Head and Co to dominate the proceedings.
Jasprit Bumrah (5/72), who came up with welcome wickets both in the morning and towards the end of play, was once again the stand out bowler for the visitors. It was his second five-wicket haul of the series and the overall tally stands at 17.
Leaving Bumrah’s brilliance aside, India’s on-field tactics left a lot to be desired as Head played yet another game changing knock.
Head’s hundred came after a match-winning 140 in Adelaide while it was a classical Test match knock for Smith, who reached three figures for the first time in 25 innings, silencing his detractors.
While reaching their personal milestones, Smith now is the international batter with joint most Test hundreds (10) against India alongside Joe Root followed by Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Garfield Sobers (8 each).
Head, since his century in WTC final at the Oval in 2023 has been India’s nemesis with another classic ton in ODI World Cup final and two more in the current series. No player in last one year has scored more runs against India across formats.
Poor tactical calls
The field placements in early part of Head’s innings were questionable with India having a deep point and deep square leg, allowing the explosive batter to pace his innings with singles and doubles earned through cuts and whips off legs.
The short balls were finally attempted when Head was well set and he duly put them away with disdain but Rohit Sharma not playing a third man for his ramp shot looked a bit odd. It was more of reactive captaincy from Rohit rather than being pro-active.
His special effort included 18 boundaries. Even after tea, too many runs were conceded with Ravindra Jadeja (0/76 in 16 overs) and Nitish Reddy (1/65 in 13 overs) opening the bowling as Rohit Sharma chose to preserve his frontline pacers for the new ball.
Smith’s hundred too was of high quality. He preferred to grind it out in the first half of his innings before gaining the confidence to go for his strokes. He changed his stance for the third time in as many Tests by reverting to his exaggerated shuffle across the stumps and that ended up paying rich dividends. The hands were moving well, which has always been integral to his game.
One bowler, who should consider himself unlucky is Akash Deep who repeatedly beat Smith’s outside edge without much success.
In the morning, Bumrah extended his dominance over the Australian openers before Reddy got into the act to leave the visitors at 104 for three at lunch.
Despite the pressure exerted by the Indian pacer, Australia were able to muster 76 runs in the session.
With the majority of day one lost due to rain, play started half an hour earlier than scheduled time and it did not take long for Bumrah what he has done thus far in the series.
Resuming at 28 for no loss, Australia lost Usman Khawaja (21 off 54) in the fourth over of the day when Bumrah had him caught behind with a ball that straightened slightly to take a faint outside edge. It was the third time Bumrah had got rid of the left-handed opener in the series.
In the following over, Bumrah sent back Nathan McSweeney (9 off 49) for the fourth time in three Tests, drawing a thick outside edge from an angle that travelled fast to Virat Kohli at second slip.
India were able to maintain pressure after the early breakthroughs with under pressure Smith and Marnus Labuschagne (12 off 55) looking to occupy the crease.
Akash and Siraj did a pose a few questions to both Smith and Labuschagne but could not get the desired results.
Reddy, who got the ball to swing, ended Labuschagne”s vigil in the 34th over of the innings. The India all-rounder drew the Australian number three to drive off a full ball and Labuschagne took the bait only to be caught by Kohli at second slip, leaving Australia at 75 for three.
Two overs later, there was a major scare in the Indian camp as Siraj walked off the field after feeling discomfort in his left leg in the middle of his over. He was seen holding his left knee but returned to the field much to India’s relief.
The injury scare came after Siraj and Labuschagne shared a light moment as the Indian pacer walked towards the batter to swap the bails only for them to be swapped back.
Rain is predicted for the next three days and is likely to impact the outcome of the game controlled by Australia at the moment.
