On Day 1 of fourth test match, Australia were 274 for five at stumps on the opening day of the Final Test at The Gabba in Brisbane today. Skipper Tim Paine unbeaten on 38 and Cameron Green unbeaten on 28 were on crease at stumps. After a strong start by India, a century to Marnus Labuschagne helped Australia to 274/5 at stumps on the first day. The home side was in trouble at 17/2 after skipper Tim Paine won the toss and elected to bat, with openers David Warner (1) and Marcus Harris (5) out cheaply.
Washington Sundar and Natarajan made their Test debuts, with Mayank Agarwal and Shardul Thakur also coming into the side to replace the injured Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Hanuma Vihari. Natarajan impressed on his debut with figures of 2/63, with Siraj (1/51), Thakur (1/67) and Sundar (1/63) the other wicket-takers. For the hosts, Labuschagne starred with the bat scoring 108, while Matthew Wade and Steve Smith also made some contributions.
However, just when Australia looked to be in control, debutant off-spinner Washington Sundar claimed the big wicket of Smith at his individual score of 36, getting the prolific batsman caught at short mid-wicket by Sharma.
Australia made one change in its playing eleven from the third Test as opener Will Pucovski failed to recover from the shoulder injury.
AUS XI: David Warner, Marcus Harris, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matthew Wade, Cameron Green, Tim Paine (c/wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
IND XI: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Mayank Agarwal, Rishabh Pant (wk), Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, T Natarajan
