Australia vs India: 4th Test, Day 2, cricket live scores, blog

India find themselves in a commanding position after the first day of action at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and Australia will need to fight back if they are a chance of drawing the series. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage of Day 2 from 10:30am (AEDT).

Having picked up a strong win in Melbourne to move 2-1 ahead in the series and ensure they would retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy, Virat Kohli and his troops turned their attention to Sydney and winning the series outright.

They made a strong start yesterday after rolling the dice at the selection table, bringing in spinner Kuldeep Yadav for the injured Ishant Sharma.

It means their four-man attack is made up of two quicks and two spin bowlers, but luckily enough, they won the toss and piled up the runs yesterday, meaning they will bowl last on a pitch likely to take turn at the end of the match.

The pitch was a little on the flat side yesterday, and the Australian bowlers struggled to bowl consistently well, as they did in the first hour.

Even though the ball stopped swinging early on and things became a long, hard slog as Cheteswhar Pujara racked up yet another century, finishing not out overnight, Australia often bowled far too short throughout the day.

Their lack of consistency in line and length allowed India to advance to 4 for 303 overnight, and that may flatter the hosts given opening batsman Mayank Agarwal threw away a first Test century by trying to hit Nathan Lyon into the Victor Trumper stand, only to be caught on the boundary.

Australia were also aided by twin failures to Virat Kohli (23) and Ajinkya Rahane (18), before Hanuma Vihari settled the ship alongside Pujara (130*) scoring 39 from just 58 balls in the run to stumps.

As Pujara and Vihari resume on Day 2, India may well try to do what they did in Melbourne. Bat for most of the day, and given the mercury is set to climb to 38 degrees, batting long and ensuring they don’t need many runs in the second innings may be the best bet.

For Australia, they must get early wickets. That’s going to come from consistent lines and lengths, but given they couldn’t break through with the second new ball yesterday, things don’t look positive.

Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of Day 2 at the Sydney Cricket Ground from 10:30am (AEDT) and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.

Game information

First ball: 10:30am (AEDT)
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground
TV: Live, Fox Sports 501, Channel Seven
Online: Live, Foxtel app, Foxtel now, Kayo Sports
Betting: India $1.40, Australia $13, draw $3.85
Umpires: Richard Kettelborough and Ian Gould

Australia (XI)
1. Marcus Harris
2. Usman Khawaja
3. Marnus Labuschagne
4. Shaun Marsh
5. Peter Handscomb
6. Travis Head
7. Tim Paine (c)
8. Pat Cummins
9. Mitchell Starc
10. Nathan Lyon
11. Josh Hazlewood

India (XI)
1. KL Rahul
2. Mayank Agarwal
3. Cheteswhar Pujara
4. Virat Kohli (c)
5. Ajinkya Rahane
6. Hanuma Vihari
7. Rishabh Pant (wk)
8. Ravindra Jadeja
9. Kuldeep Yadav
10. Mohammed Shami
11. Jasprit Bumrah