IND vs AUS: Australia ride on Travis Head's eighth Test ton to take upper hand, reduce India to 128/5 in second innings

Travis Head tormented the India with his eighth Test hundred in Adelaide on Saturday as Australia took a upper hand against India in the ongoing second Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT). At the end of Day 2, India are 128/5, still trailing by 29 runs. Having conceded a 157-run lead in the first innings, India started their second essay on a disastrous note, losing KL Rahul cheaply. 

Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed four boundaries during his 31-ball stay before falling victim to Scott Boland. The 35-year-old then got the better of Virat Kohli before Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins accounted for Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma to put the hosts in the driver's seat. 

At the moment, Rishabh Pant and Nitish Kumar Reddy are in the crease, batting on 28 and 15 respectively. Earlier, starting the day on 86/1, Australia lost overnight batter Nathan McSweeney and Steve Smith early before Head and Marnus Labuschagne took charge.

Although Labuschagne was dismissed for 64, Travis continued to be India's Head-ache as he stormed to his second Test hundred against India in 111 balls. He was finally cleaned up by Mohammed Siraj for 140 just before dinner break.

Head, who got off the mark with a cracking boundary off Jasprit Bumrah (4/59), got a reprieve on 76 as Mohammed Siraj failed to complete the catch despite getting both hands to it after the batter tried to slog-sweep R Ashwin, having just smashed his third six against the off-spinner. 

Amid the rejoicing around Head's century at the Adelaide Oval, Siraj was rewarded for his discipline as he had Alex Carey caught behind following a faint outside edge with Australia's lead crossing 100.

Desperate to prevent Australia from swelling their lead further, India took the second new ball the moment it was made available to them, and their lead pacer Bumrah too was brought back into the attack. Bumrah, however, pulled up and was seen holding his adductor muscle as the physio attended to him. Fortunately for India, Bumrah was up on his feet quickly and ready to bowl again, even as Head flicked him for two boundaries in between.

During his knock, Head played some incredible shots, including a pick-up six over Siraj over deep square leg, but the pacer had the last laugh as he brought his innings to an end when he cleaned him up with a yorker. In all, Head struck 17 fours and four sixes.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma giving his strike bowler Bumrah only four overs in the first session was a bit strange, and so were some of his field placements. Then, in another surprising move, he started the proceedings after tea with Ravichandran Ashwin instead of the fast bowlers.

This was after Marnus Labuschagne regained form with a composed half-century. Labuschagne (64), whose place in the team was debated prior to this game owing to his prolonged lean run with the bat, registered his 26th half-century and then launched himself into a flurry of boundaries in what were worrying signs for India.

But promising all-rounder Nitish Reddy cut short Labuschagne's innings as the batter tried to guide him through gully only for Yashasvi Jaiswal to hold on to the sharp catch. Looking to fight their way back into the game after Australia's dominance on the opening day, India got an early breakthrough through who else but Bumrah.

Playing in only his second Test after a forgettable debut in Perth, Nathan McSweeney had no answer to one of many excellent deliveries from Bumrah, which straightened a fraction after landing on the perfect length and all the batter could do was get a little nick while trying to defend after getting stuck on the crease.

Steve Smith's poor run of form continued as the former captain got out in the most unfortunate fashion. Smith looked to flick a Bumrah delivery tickling down the leg side but only ended up edging it to the keeper Rishabh Pant who completed a neat catch diving to his left.

With PTI Inputs