Live: Australia hunting wickets on day three of final Test against India

OK, here we go, Australia has a lead of 444.

Rohit gets things moving straight away with a clip off his pads for a single.

Gill leaves outside off and defends the next.

There is one slip and a gully in place.

A bit too leg side, Starc from around the wicket angling just too much onto the pads and Gill clips to square leg for a single.

Khawaja’s return to the Test team has been so pleasing and his form so good that I couldn’t even be mad when he was dominating England in the Ashes last year.

He’s just too likeable isn’t he?

Mitch Johnson is out in the middle doing the pitch report for the host broadcaster.

He says we should not expect much difference to what we’ve seen.

“Very similar to what we saw on day one and day two,” he says.

“The pitch hasn’t shown any real dangers … It’s pretty well held together.”

He does say that the thing that might interest the Aussies is Mitch Starc, bowling over the wicket, roughing up the area outside off stump for the right handers for Nathan Lyon to exploit with his follow through,.

“It’s a big day ahead of [Australia]”.

Should be another solid day for batting.

Australia batted long thanks to superb partnerships between Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green and Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy to get into a very strong position in this Test.

Here’s the full summary, but if you don’t have time for that, here’s the bullet points:

• Australia wore black armbands after the death of Pat Cummins’ mother overnight
• Australia resumed on 4-255
• Usman Khawaja reached 150 runs from 346 balls
• Cameron Green scored a maiden Test century from 143 balls
• Green (114), Alex Carey (0) and Mitchell Starc (6) all went in quick succession as Australia went from 4-378 to 7-387 in the space of five overs
• Khawaja was out first ball after tea for 180 (422 balls in 611 minutes)
• Todd Murphy (41) and Nathan Lyon (34) put on 70 for the ninth wicket
• Australia was bowled out for 480
• Rohit Sharma (17) and  Shubman Gill (18) helped India to 0-36 at the close

Good afternoon and welcome to the ABC Sport coverage of the final Test between India and Australia in Ahmedabad.

I’m Simon Smale and I’ll be with you today.

Day three is often moving day in a five day Test.

In the last three Tests it’s actually been the final day.

But this Test is different and instead of writing our conclusions we are instead going to be treated to a superb day of grinding Test cricket.

This is likely to go one of two ways: India will bat and bat long, making big inroads into Australia’s lead, or Australia’s spinners will rip through their hosts and put Australia in a dominant position in the Test.

Should be a cracker – I’m looking forward to sharing it with you all.