IND vs AUS, Day 2, 1st Session: Lyon roars at Kotla as India lose four before lunch

Nathan Lyon (Source: AP Newsroom)

Beginning the day at 21 for no loss with captain Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul coming in to bat after halting the Aussie side for 263, India looked in command but things changed as soon as they could.

With three spinners in the line-up, Australia always has the upper hand as the pitch at Arun Jaitley Stadium started to turn making it difficult for the batters to play in line.

Rahul, again, disappointed with just 17 as veteran spinner Nathan Lyon trapped him in front of stumps after a brief chat with skipper Pat Cummins who suggested him something that worked greatly in their favour.

Not even two overs passed when Sharma lost his stumps to the off-spinner which added greatly to India's worries as scoreboard showed 53 for 2. Even though Rohit was playing with intent, he couldn't have done much to turning deliveries that looked vicious enough to get better off him.

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Coming into bat in his 100th Test, India's long time savior Cheteshwar Pujara got hit on pad that Australia believed would have hit his stumps after umpire Nitin Menon turned down their appeal. So, they take the review which confirmed that it was hitting the stumps and more importantly, hitting the pad first rather than bat.

This was a major setback to India's hopes as Lyon was already on three wickets with Pujara back in the pavilion.

Incoming batter, Shreyas Iyer stayed was shortened too as the Lyon got his fourth which Peter Handscomb caught beautifully at short leg while juggling two-three times.

However, it was Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja who sailed the ship till the end of the session as they formed a 22-run stand by the end.

Kohli was able to do well negotiating turning deliveries with his foot movement going across his stumps at times.

India's score after the end of the session was 88/4 with them still trailing by 175.

Talking Points

• Another KL Rahul failure might now prompt the management to look towards different options with the likes of Shubman Gill sitting in the dugout. More than that, his poor run of form has affected the team's performance as well.
• Nathan Lyon is major threat for India now considering pitch is turning and surely in the upcoming session, it would be much more difficult to handle him.

Expectations

India's hopes now lies in hands of Kohli and Jadeja as they have done it in the past for them and should be able to do it again provided pitch behaves better with not much spice. They have to bat through the session, no matter what if India want to save this game. Australia would want to ensure that they get atleast two more.

Brief Scores:

Australia: 263/10 (78.4 overs)

Usman Khawaja 81 (125), Peter Handscomb 72* (142);
Md. Shami 4/60 (14.4), Ravi Ashwin 3/57 (21)

India: 99/4 (38.5 Ov)

Rohit Sharma 32 (69), KL Rahul 17 (41);
Nathan Lyon 4/25 (11)

India trail by 175 runs.