India will be eyeing a 3-0 lead against Australia in the third game of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023 at Indore. Men in Blue needs to win three test matches in the four test match series to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final in England. Meanwhile, Asian giants are batting first at the Indore Holkar Stadium.
Rohit Sharma is just 33 runs away from completing his 17,000 runs in International cricket. While Virat Kohli is just 55 runs away from completing 4,000 test runs on his home soil. Sharma will join the elite list of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni if he manages to achieve this feat in the third game of BGT.
Earlier, India opted to bat first against Steve Smith-led side at Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. The home side made two changes in the third game of BGT, Shubman Gill and Umesh Yadav replace KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami, while in the Baggy Greens playing XI, Mitchell Starc and Cameoon Green come in the place of Pat Cummins and Matt Renshaw. At lunch, India scored 84 runs for the loss of seven wickets.
? Toss Update from Indore ?#TeamIndia have elected to bat against Australia in the 3⃣rd #INDvAUS Test.
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/xymbrIdggs@mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/qy7tRSIHS0
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 1, 2023
In the last match, run-machine Kohli scripted history by becoming the fastest player to complete 25,000 international runs, becoming only the sixth batter to touch the landmark and the fastest cricketer to do so. Indian star batter Kohli broke Virender Sehwag’s record at the Delhi test match, while the former Indian opener scored 1738 runs in BGT. Kohli surpassed Sehwag’s run tally by scoring 64 runs in the second test match.
The Indian skipper is the leading run-scorer of the BGT 2023 with 195 runs in four innings, He scored the match-winning century in the first test match, which India won by an inning and 132 runs. While the home side won the second test match against the Aussies by six wickets in Delhi.
Rohit Sharma-led side will be looking to win this match to qualify for the World Test Championship (WTC) final, Asian giants need to win at least three test matches in the four-match series to qualify for the WTC final. The home side has already retained the BGT trophy four consecutive times after the last test match win.