Former Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has revealed why Indian skipper Rohit Sharma opted to bat first in the third Test against Australia at the Gabba, Brisbane. Shastri reckons the visitors might have wanted to put Australia’s shaky batting order under the pump. 

Rohit’s decision to bat first was criticised by many cricket boffins but Shastri reckons Australia’s opening pair not being in the best of forms, might have attracted the Indian captain to bowl first.

Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney have failed to provide decent starts to the home team in the ongoing series. Both the openers were dismissed cheaply by India’s gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah early on day two.

While Khawaja was dismissed on 21, McSweeney could only manage nine runs. Shastri noted that earlier David Warner used to play the aggressive role whereas Khawaja played second fiddle but it is no longer the case with McSweeney also adopting a defensive approach.

“It does effect you big time, because a lot of the pressure is taken off you as a batsman (when) you can play your own game, leave a lot of balls because David (Warner) would attack at the other end. There’s a player with intent, and the scoreboard will be ticking along,” Ravi Shastri said on Fox Cricket (via Yahoo Sports).

“When runs are not coming at both ends, that’s one of the reasons why India must have opted to field first because they could have sensed an opportunity. The top order hasn’t scored some runs, let’s make some early inroads and put pressure on the middle order,” he added.

Meanwhile, in the first two Test matches, India opted to bat first after winning the toss at Perth and Adelaide. 

Australia have put themselves in a dominating position at 405-7 after centuries from Travis Head (152) and Steve Smith (101).