After a dull rain-dominated Day 1, the fans witnessed an action-packed Sunday at Gabba with two centuries and one five-wicket haul. Travis Head continued tormenting the Indian side by scoring 152 and Steve Smith returned to his old self with his 33rd Test hundred to take Australia to a 405 for 7 total at the end of Day 2.
Jasprit Bumrah kept hosts in check by taking a five-for the travelling side but with a 400-plus total and three wickets in hands, Australia took commanding control of the game in the third match of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
Starting Day 2’s play from 28 for 0, Australia were stunned by Bumrah’s early impact with two wickets. The Indian pace spearhead produced a breakthrough with Usman Khawaja‘s wicket in the 17th over and then also removed Nathan McSweeney in his next over to put India ahead in the game.
Nitish Kumar Reddy then stroke to remove settled Marnus Labuschagne to skittle Australia to 75 for 3 before lunch. But last game’s hero Travis Head and the veteran Steve Smith took charge and played out memorable knocks to stage Australia’s stunning comeback in the second session.
Head and Smith dominated the entire session and added 241 runs for the fourth wicket with the former smashing his 3rd Test hundred against India and second in the ongoing series. Smith also ended his century drought by scoring 101 off 190 balls after a slow start to his innings.
Bumrah managed to bring India back into the game by taking three wickets in the space of 12 balls in the third session but once again Australia were able to stage a comeback with wicketkeeper Alex Carey denying India a happy ending on Day 2.
Carey added an unbeaten 45* off just 47 balls and captain Pat Cummins scored crucial 20 runs to take Australia past 400 total. Apart from Bumrah’s 5 for 72, Nitish Reddy and Mohammed Siraj picked one wicket each for India.
Australia Playing XI: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
India Playing XI: 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.
