India was 3-289 at stumps at the end of day three after a fine century by Shubman Gill but still trailed by 191 runs.

The second day of the Ahmedabad Test had given Australia all of the information they needed to know that when it came to their time in the field it was going to be tough. While Usman Khawaja had scored 180 and Cameron Green his maiden century, the clues came from the lower order.

Todd Murphy had made his highest first class score and Nathan Lyon batted for over two hours for the first time in his career.

With little help for the bowlers from the pitch, Steve Smith often relied on setting some unusual fields as he tried to find some breakthroughs.

It didn’t take long before the experiments began. Finding little sideways movement off the wicket Mitchell Starc switched to a short ball tactic. In his second over he managed to get Rohit Sharma to glove a pull shot down the leg side but the ball eluded Alex Carey’s diving attempt. Three men were then posted back on the boundary at or behind square when Starc bowled the last ball of his opening spell. It didn’t bother Rohit who managed to bisect the two finer fielders and clear the boundary for a six.

Starc was then replaced by Matt Kuhnemann who kept things tight during his first few overs without seeming to cause many problems for the batters. Perhaps it was the slightly lessened threat that brought Rohit’s downfall. Having made 35 he rocked back and played a lame shot straight into the hands of Marnus Labuschagne at short cover.

Todd Murphy was held back by Smith until the last half an hour before lunch. In his final over before the break his third delivery produced a large puff of dust, span more than most and bounced past Shubman Gill’s inside edge and over the top of middle stump. There hadn’t been another delivery like it all morning but with still more than half the Test to play it could have been a sign of what lay ahead.

The rest of the morning belonged to the second wicket pair with India 1-129 at lunch.

Australia’s tactics after the break were to try and frustrate India and force a mistake. Only 25 runs were scored in the first 17 overs after play resumed, with Smith setting fields to try and disrupt the rhythm of the batters. These were mainly with a leg side bias with as many as seven players on that side of the field including up to three close in fielders in front of the wicket and a leg slip.

Gill is known as an attacking batter but here he seemed content to bide his time. There was, however, a slight rush to the head in the 54th over when he almost misjudged a single to mid-on and had to scamper to make his ground before Travis Head’s throw just missed the stumps.

At the end of the following over Cheteshwar Pujara received some on field treatment for what appeared to be a hip problem.

Nothing though, was really affecting Gill. Next over he produced two glorious drives through cover to take him into the nineties and the first ball of the following over from Murphy was a full toss that Pujara despatched to the boundary to bring up the hundred partnership.

Gill’s second Test century came in the penultimate over before tea when he produced a clever scooped sweep shot to fine leg. It had taken him 194 deliveries having adjusted his attacking instincts to play at the tempo required for the game.

It looked like it would be a wicketless session for Australia but, four balls later, Murphy made an important breakthrough when he grabbed the wicket of Pujara when he’d made 42.The delivery beat the inside edge and struck Pujara on the pad with India wasting a review as the ball was shown to have been going on to have hit half way up middle stump. The second wicket pair had put on 113 but India were still trailing by 292 runs at the tea break.

Virat Kohli is clearly the crowd favourite in Ahmedabad despite having gone over three years and 41 innings since he reached three figures. Much of the focus moved off Gill and having already reached his hundred he should have felt less pressure. That may have been his undoing or, perhaps, a touch of tiredness as the 23 year old had spent nearly six hours at the crease.

On 128 he played back to Lyon but misjudged the line and was trapped in front to end a 58 run third wicket partnership.

That brought Ravi Jadeja to the crease. Until the last Test he had only batted as high as number five once before in his 64 Tests but had hit centuries in two of his last seven innings. With Kohli struggling for runs and Jadeja playing unusually high in the order it looked as though it was a chance for Australia to take control.

It wasn’t to be. Kohli finally made it fifty for the first time in sixteen innings although he had to wait for confirmation as it required the third umpire to check that he hadn’t run one short while turning for the second run to take him to the mark.

Jadeja was kept in check only managing to score 16 that included a six off Kuhnemann not long before stumps.

Smith put off taking the new ball and when he finally called for it after 94 overs it was expected that Starc would return for a three over blast. In the end he only bowled one and the fourth wicket pair saw out the rest of the day against the spinners. They’d added 44 for the fourth wicket but it had taken more than twenty overs as a tiring Australia did well to keep the run rate in check.

Afterwards, Lyon summed up exactly what had been witnessed, “These are the types of Test matches you want to be part of. The hard grind and with the potential great reward at the end of it. They’re challenging, there’s no point in hiding behind that but we’re up for a challenge and it’s a grind, a proper grind so good Test cricket”

More to come.