Rohit Sharma survives 'dismissals' twice due to Steve Smith and Nitin Menon's errors

Indian captain Rohit Sharma survived twice in the first hour of the India vs Australia 3rd Test match, as the Aussie skipper Steve Smith decided not to go upstairs with DRS. India won the toss ahead of the 3rd Test at the Holkar Stadium in Indore and opted to bat first. Opening the batting for India, captain Rohit was caught off guard by star Aussie pacer Mitchell Starc in the very first delivery of the match.

Starc bowled a length ball around the fourth stump as Rohit's bat hung outside the off stump. There was some sound as the ball went past the bat, before going into the gloves of Alex Carey. This made the Australians erupt with a huge appeal for caught behind, before being turned down by umpire Nitin Menon.

Smith and co. looked like having a mini-conference in the middle, but the captain opted not to go for DRS. The big screen later showed that the UltraEdge had a slight spike as the ball passed Rohit’s back, bringing disappointment for the Aussie side. The Indian skipper went on to play two more dot deliveries before providing another chance of dismissal to the Aussies.

Rohit Sharma survives again in the first over

In the fourth ball of the over, Starc’s delivery nipped back from the good length on the off-stump line and sneaked in through the gap between Rohit’s bat and pad. Australia erupted with a caught-behind appeal but was turned down by Nitin once again. While Smith again decided against the DRS call, the replays suggested that the ball brushed past Rohit’s back leg and would have hit the wickets if DRS was called.

Rohit then scripted a small comeback by hitting Starc for a four before ending the over with a dot ball. Shubman Gill and Rohit then added 27 runs to India’s total for the first wicket stand before Rohit’s dismissal in the sixth over. He scored 12 runs off 23 balls, hitting all his runs off boundaries. However, he ended up losing his wicket with a shot that looked desperate as he was stumped by Carey in Matthew Kuhnemann’s first over of the innings.

Rohit’s wicket in the first session of Day 1 resulted in India suffering a small collapse as the team was reduced to 46/5 in 12 overs. While Gill hit 21 runs, Cheteshwar Pujara added only one run, while Ravindra Jadeja scored four runs. Shreyas Iyer was dismissed on a duck as Kuhnemann registered his third wicket of the day.