India swept away before the rain against Australia

On rain-hit day, Indian top order implodes yet again in face of relentless Aussie pace attack at The Gabba
BRISBANE: India sank deeper into the mire as rain played havoc here on Monday.
On a bizarre stop-start day which saw the covers being put on and removed eight times, a familiar script played out as the top order made some strange calls and collapsed with next to nothing on the board.
In the limited 33.1 overs of play possible, Australia first consolidated their advantage, adding 40 runs in the morning to get to 445. Subsequently, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood did the rest with the new ball to leave India tottering at 51/4 from 17 overs faced.
Only KL Rahul, who opened the innings again, played to the situation and adapted to the conditions, made an effort to blunt the new ball and ended the day batting on 33. Giving him company was the edgy and totally out-of-character Rohit Sharma, whose lack of runs compelled him to go down the order again.

Australia's relentless pace attack induced silly errors from the other batters and raised the question whether India's Test-match batting is close to imploding on this tour. For Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli, in particular, the Perth heroics will now seem a distant memory.
India's first-innings collapses have been a constant feature of their last five Test campaigns across home and away conditions. They have crossed 200 only once, against New Zealand in Mumbai, and their highest first-innings total on this tour is the 180 in Adelaide. Will winning the toss and debatably opting to field first change the script here?
Australia's top three had shown the way on the second day, but most of the Indian batters who got out seemed reluctant to see off the new ball, bide their time, leave on length and trust their defence. That India had to continuously walk off because of the rain and reapply themselves on this surface didn't help.
The stoppages seemed to have made Jaiswal edgy even before India's openers walked out to the middle. He had lasted one ball against Starc in the first innings in Adelaide and was keen to rectify matters.
Jaiswal was all padded up with his partner nowhere in sight, then decided to face some throwdowns later as the ground staff were getting the square and outfield ready for play. He was seen playing the flick, and a shot hit a videographer focused on Australia's huddle. Jaiswal immediately rushed to apologize.
With the cushion of runs behind them, Australia began with four slips and a gully and one forward square leg. Jaiswal drove hard at the first ball, which was pitched up and swinging away from him, and the outside edge raced to the boundary. Off the second ball, an innocuous half volley, he unleashed an airy flick straight down Mitchell Marsh's throat at forward square leg.
The nervous energy had scrambled Jaiswal's brain and he had lasted just one more delivery than Adelaide. This is the third time in five innings that Starc has now dismissed the left-hander, taking Jasiwal's average against left-arm pace down to 17.33 from 9 innings.
Next in, Shubman Gill played out three balls from Starc before the bowler had him first ball of the third over, the batter needlessly going for the big drive to a fuller delivery outside off. The edge flew to the left of gully, and it was Marsh again with a fine take. Two loose shots, two soft dismissals, and in walked Virat Kohli.

KOHLI'S STRUGGLES CONTINUE
Kohli was beaten on the drive first ball from Starc, was lucky not to get an outside edge to the second ball, then inside-edged one shaping back and managed to get off the mark. He seemed eager to get going but Hazelwood's next over to him was a maiden, the batsman beaten by a fine inswinger third ball.
A Hazlewood delivery subsequently strayed on the pads and fetched a single. Another quick single against Starc followed. So did an awkward nothing shot against a surprise short one, with Kohli failing to pull away and fending awkwardly.
Next over first ball, Hazlewood baited him with a wider one. Kohli promptly chased after it and found only the edge to the 'keeper. Gone for three, a torrid 16-ball stay ending in all-too-predictable fashion and immediately setting off the alarm bells.
Sunil Gavaskar, in the Channel 7 booth, said, "If it was on the fourth stump I could understand. This was wide, on the seventh, eighth stump. There's no need to play that. He has such a strong bottom hand. He can play straight or towards mid-wicket. He needs to just stop playing towards off."
Others insisted a technical glitch may be to blame, with Kohli's bat coming in from second slip instead of the vertical, forcing the batter to shape up inside the line of the ball before searching for the delivery. Only Kohli will know why he took the bait, and what needs to be done to make amends.
Since Jan 2020, he averages only 31.67 as compared to a career average of 54.5. This year Kohli has eight single digit scores, the joint-most in his career since a similar drought in 2014.
By now India were in deep trouble at 22/3, and it wasn't to be Rishabh Pant to pull off the rescue act. Multiple rain stoppages later, Pat Cummins tore through Pant's awkward defence for the third time in this series.
Only Rahul, who bided his time, played with a short backlift, did not chase the ball, cashed in only on genuine run-scoring opportunities and ended the day with a thunderous cover-drive off Starc, can save this Test now for India. Either Rahul, or the rain, which is expected again on the fourth day.