Australia v India, First Test, Day 3: Marnus Labuschagne’s spot on the line as batting collapse puts hosts on edge of huge defeat

Australia’s hopes of a miracle Test win over India look all but over after their top order was decimated in a brutal half hour of fast bowling from the tourists’ hungry attack.

Marnus Labuschagne’s hold on a Test spot is teetering with Australia on track for one of its heaviest home defeats after a chastening weekend in Perth went from bad to disastrous on Sunday.

Set the academic target of 534 to win following centuries from India’s burgeoning superstar Yashasvi Jaiswal and defiant great Virat Kohli, the Aussies nosedived to be 3-12 at stumps on day three, needing a miracle to rescue the first Test.

Nathan McSweeney’s debut Test involvement ended with a second innings duck as he was trapped dead in front by the rampant Jasprit Bumrah before captain Pat Cummins - walking towards the fire in the unfamiliar role of nightwatchman - edged Mohammed Siraj to second slip to fall for two.

Bumrah then sent the woefully out-of-form Labuschagne towards the brink of omission, removing him lbw for three - Labuschagne also blowing a DRS challenge - with what proved to be the final ball of the day.

Battling veterans Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith will be charged with leading the salvage mission for respectability when the Test resumes on Monday.

McSweeney gone in the first over

Having watched on as Jaiswal glided to his fourth Test century, Kohli added salt into the Australian wounds, surpassing Don Bradman with his 30th Test century. After reaching the milestone and acknowledging wife Anushka in the crowd, Kohli immediately walked off with partner Nitish Kumar Reddy as India declared at 6-487 with around 35 minutes left in the day.

The tourists would have hoped it would give them enough time to take one wicket. Instead they took three.

Josh Hazlewood, one of the few Australians who could come away with a pass mark from this Test so far, effectively conceded that the Aussies were now playing for consolation prizes in a bid to curb India’s skyrocketing momentum.

“It’s obviously a long series. It’s a five match series. So if we can put some overs into their top quicks, I guess that’s probably the couple of goals that we need to tick off tomorrow. And if a couple of guys find some form and score, you know, an 80, 90 or even 100 that’s probably the positives we can take out of it,” Hazlewood said.

Labuschagne is averaging 30.28 in Test cricket since February last year and just 13.66 in five Tests since the start of the series against the West Indies in mid-January.

“He’s been his normal self,” Hazlewood said of Labuaschagne.

“I know he’s always a big thinker of the game. He loves talking cricket, playing cricket. He sleeps and breathes it. I haven’t noticed anything different in Marnus. He’ll talk to the coaches and talk to probably Smithy most of all about his batting.”

Having arrived at the ground on Sunday already trailing by 218 runs, Australia was desperate for early inroads but could not stop Jaiswal who reached his century by ramping Hazlewood for six.

Mitchell Starc’s shake of the head when he finally broke through to remove KL Rahul caught behind for 77 spoke to the exasperation of a much-vaunted and decorated attack whose day one destruction of the tourists had quickly been relegated to footnote status.

Only when the ever-frugal Josh Hazlewood broke through to remove Devdutt Paddikal via an edge to second slip with the first ball after lunch did India start to wobble.

Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Dhruv Jurel fell in quick succession but ominously for Australia Kohli found some much-needed touch as India’s lead swelled beyond more than two-decade-old Test chase benchmark of 418 scaled by the West Indies against Australia in Antigua.

The legendary Glenn McGrath - part of the Aussie XI that lost that dead rubber to the Windies in 2003 - summed up the situation on the ABC.

“The horse has bolted here. Australia would have hoped to get two or maybe three before the new ball and make some inroads into the Indian batting line-up,” McGrath said.

That the bounce in the Perth wicket was also becoming more unpredictable added to the enormous challenge facing a generally out-of-sorts Australian top six.

Outbowled by Starc and Hazlewood on the opening day, Cummins was again relatively expensive and well short of his lofty best in the second innings, only striking to remove Jurel for one by which point his side was already 366 runs in arrears.

Cummins was the only one of the Australian XI who did not play a Sheffield Shield match in the lead-up to this Test, saying that his preference was to err on the side of being underdone heading into a jam-packed schedule this summer.

Starc too copped punishment after being among his side’s best players across the first four sessions of the match, while even Hazlewood strayed uncharacteristically on Sunday afternoon.

Nathan Lyon at least scored a moral victory by tempting Rishabh Pant down the wicket to a wide one to have the destructive Indian gloveman stumped.

Such was Kohli’s touch, he struck an unknowing security guard on the head hitting Starc for six, with the official being attended to by medical staff.

Jaiswal posted two double-centuries in a five-Test series against India earlier last year having only made his Test debut against the West Indies last year.

He followed in the footsteps of all-time great Sachin Tendulkar by making a Perth Test century in his first tour of Australia, with Tendulkar having achieved the feat in early 1992.

Follow all the action throughout the day in our live blog below.

Originally published as Australia v India, First Test, Day 3: Marnus Labuschagne’s spot on the line as batting collapse puts hosts on edge of huge defeat