IND vs AUS 4th Test Melbourne weather report: With their backs against the wall, India will step onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Day 3 with a belief of turning it around. After being whacked for 143 in the opening session, India had bounced back in the next two sessions, barring that final half an hour of the day, which saw three wickets falling in quick succession.
The Aussies piled up 474 runs with Steve Smith getting to his 34th Test century. Rohit Sharma opened in place of KL Rahul and departed early for three. Rahul got off to a start but failed to convert it as he fell for 24 at the stroke of the tea.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli put in the hard yards and played sedately in the final session. Both the players put up 102 runs for the third wicket before an unfortunate run-out which saw Jaiswal getting dismissed. Kohli, who played well and left the ball outside off, fell for one off Scott Boland seven balls later. Akash Deep came in as a nightwatchman and was caught at leg gully as India went down from 153/2 to 164/5. India would be hoping for some magic as they still trail by 310 runs.
Meanwhile, the weather might provide some relief to the Indian fans who might be hoping for a draw. There are chances of precipitation on Day 3 of the Boxing Day Test at MCG.
Showers are predicted in latter half of Day 3
As per Accuweather, there are chances of precipitation on Day 3 of the MCG Test. The game starts at 10:30 AM local time, 5 AM IST and there is rain predicted in the second half of the day. As per the weather predicting platform, there is only a 2% chance of rain from 10 AM to 12 PM local time, before they go up at 49% at 2 PM. The chances further go up to 57% at 3 PM and staying at 52% and 49% at 4 PM and 5 PM, respectively.
There are still three days to go for the MCG Test, and a draw looks highly unlikely even if the second half of the day is interrupted by rain.
India have Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja out in the middle and have Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy to follow. Many would feel that the visitors still have batting to follow but it would have been great for them had both Jaiswal and Kohli had remained unbeaten at the end of the second day.