India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field against Pat Cummins’ Australia in the third Test of the five-match series at The Gabba in Brisbane on Saturday.
India made a couple of changes in their playing XI with Harshit Rana and R Ashwin making way for Akash Deep and Ravindra Jadeja respectively. On the other hand, Josh Hazlewood, who has recovered from his side injury, returned to the Australian playing XI in place of Scott Boland.
“Little bit overcast and a little bit of grass, looks a bit soft as well, I want to make best use of the conditions. It will get better to bat as it goes on,” Rohit said at the toss.
“Big game for us here, we’ll do what is expected of us. We’ll play good cricket, we understand we have to capture some moments, we didn’t do that in the previous game which is why we lost,” he added.
Milestone Opportunity For Steve Smith
Veteran Australian batter Steve Smith is on the verge of a big landmark in his glittering career. The 35-year-old looks certain to overtake Ricky Ponting’s record for Test catches taken by Australian fielders by the end of the summer.
Smith, has had a lean start to the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, has taken five catches already in the first two Tests to take his career tally to 188 and needs to secure only another nine catches to overtake the Australian mark held by Ponting of 196.
Former Australian great Adam Gilchrist, who stood alongside several fine slips fielders, explained why Smith is a good catcher of the ball.
“He just has very soft hands and is very relaxed, but it is mainly the body position and the body height. You look at replays and Steve Smith’s hands are down really, really low and he is just in a really good position and he has just got outstanding reflexes,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On.
“But I just love the way the ball sounds going into his hand. If you do watch the warm-up, or do see them practice, it is just a deep, soft sound. He is naturally gifted, but don’t underestimate how much they work at it,” he added.
Notably, Smith is also within range of the overall record held by Indian champion Rahul Dravid, who took 210 catches in 164 Tests at a rate of .697 catches per innings.
Playing XIs For IND vs AUS 3rd Test
Australia: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
