WATCH: Steve Smith drops a sitter on the first ball of the day to give KL Rahul huge life during Gabba Test

Bright sunshine welcomed both teams onto the field during the 4th day of the Gabba Test match on Tuesday morning. Team India had ended the 3rd day on 51/4 as a combination of rain and bad light had saved them after yet another dismal batting performance. It could have been 5 down on the very first ball of the day on Tuesday. 

Pat Cummins opened the bowling with KL Rahul on strike. The Australian skipper bowled the perfect ball to Rahul, who got a thick edge off his bat. Steve Smith, standing in the slips, dropped the catch much to the disbelief of his teammates. Pat Cummins was left in shock by the dropped chance, as it would have been a great start to the day. 

First ball of the day and dropped!#AUSvINDpic.twitter.com/lY8cdsN5Wo

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 16, 2024

Mitchell Starc on Monday dismissed both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for 4 and 1, respectively. Virat Kohli was out after scoring 3 runs when he edged a catch to Alex Carey off Josh Hazlewood. Rishabh Pant was the final wicket to fall on Monday when he was out to Cummins, caught behind by Carey. 

Matthew Hayden asks Rohit Sharma to show intent 

Yet another player who is under scanner for his form with the bat is none other than Indian skipper Rohit Sharma. The 37-year-old has scored just one fifty in his last 8 innings and had scored a total of nine runs in the previous match. Former Australian batter Matthew Hayden has advised Rohit to show more intent on day four of the game. 

Speaking to Star Sports towards the end of the day, Hayden said, “When I think of Rohit Sharma, I think of a free-scoring batsman. You look at those double hundreds in one day cricket, his magnificence in the short formats. For purely Rohit Sharma's sake, he needs to have great intent and energy about him. When I think back to Adelaide, his first game here in a long time, he was just a little sluggish."

The former Aussie star also added, “I'd be saying to him as his partner, 'I don't really want to see you defend the ball here'. I want him to be really reactive to the ball, really up for the fight, because his natural game will flow. Energy and intent will take that front foot a lot further towards the ball. Rohit, what I want you to do, my brother, is play with great energy and intent, and I'd have those as two maybe trigger words for him to think about in his preparation."

Mattew Hayden spoke about India losing wickets to the new ball as well as the lack of runs from Australian openers. “I just feel at the moment that there's an urgency around India's batting. It has to be an effort over time here at The Gabba. Technically, you know, find a way to get through the new ball. You haven't got that long. You know, those wickets all came largely within the first 10 overs; Nathan McSweeney hasn't set this series on light. But what he has done is resisted the urge to get out early. Usman Khawaja is a bit the same. And that's Australian conditions. It's a new ball wicket. Melbourne will be no different, nor Sydney."