Shubman Gill and Pujara. (Photo Source: BCCI)
After limiting the negatives to the loss of only three wickets in three sessions of the third day, India seem to have recovered well and are approaching a commanding position in the ongoing fourth Test against Australia. Indians looked dominant on the batting-friendly Ahmedabad track as they reduced the deficit to 191 runs with seven wickets remaining in the first innings.
Talking about how the day panned out, Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma looked solid, as they put up 74 runs for the first wicket. Matthew Kuhnemann provided the first breakthrough for Australia by picking Rohit Sharma’s priced wicket at an individual score of 35. Soon after, Cheteshwar Pujara joined Gill in the middle and they both shared 118 runs between them for the second wicket until Pujara got trapped lbw by Todd Murphy in the 62nd over.
However, Gill continued to play with caution and notched his second Test century in 194 balls. Shubman Gill amassed 128 runs from 235 balls in an innings that included 12 fours and one maximum. Virat Kohli partnered Gill for the third wicket to add 58 runs on the board.
In the 79th over, Nathan Lyon bowled a peach of a delivery to trap Gill and thus, broke the burgeoning third wicket partnership. Virat Kohli toiled hard against the Australian spinners to bring up his 29th half -century in the longest format after 16 innings. Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja added 44 more valuable runs and ensured no more damage was done after the loss of Gill. India ended Day 3 with 289/3 and are currently trailing by 191 runs.
Meanwhile let us look at the stats and numbers from Day 3 of fourth Test between India and Australia:
4 – Shubman Gill became the only fourth Indian batter after Suresh Raina, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma to smash centuries in all formats in a calendar year.
Indians players scoring centuries in all formats in a calendar year
2010 -Suresh Raina
2016 -KL Rahul
2017 -Rohit Sharma
2023 -Shubman Gill
36 -Rohit Sharma has completed 2000 Test runs at home in 36 innings.
Least innings taken by an Indian to complete 2000 Test runs at home:
33 – Mohammad Azharuddin
36 – Cheteshwar Pujara
36 – Rohit Sharma
38 – Sachin Tendulkar
6 -Cheteshwar Pujara became the sixth player to complete 2000 runs in Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
5 -Virat Kohli became the fifth Indian player to Smash 4000 Test runs at home. The other four players are Sachin Tendulkar (7216), Rahul Dravid (5598), Sunil Gavaskar (5067) and Virender Sehwag (4656).
6 -Rohit Sharma has completed 17000 runs across formats, becoming the sixth Indian batter to do so.
128 -Shubman Gill registered his highest Test score bettering his previous best of 110 against Bangladesh.
16 -Virat Kohli took 16 innings to score 50+ in a Test match, since Jan 2022. This is the longest streak in his career where he didn’t score a half-century.
3 -Virat Kohli surpasses Desmond Haynes’ tally of most 50+ scores against Australia and now has the third most 50 + scores against Australia in international cricket.
Most 50+ scores against Australia in international cricket:
51 – Sachin Tendulkar
42 – Vivian Richards
39 – Virat Kohli
38 – Desmond Haynes
38 – Brian Lara.
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