Ind vs Aus, Third Test: Play has been abandoned on Day 1

1303 IST Heavy rain has forced play to be abandoned for the day. The match will resume on day 2, weather permitting, at 0900 IST, 30 minutes earlier than usual. 1207 IST Looks like it has started drizzling again. The umpires have had another look. Play looks unlikely today. The covers are on. Yawn. 1205 IST Australia’s bowling attack will feature only two frontline quicks - Peter Siddle and Starc - plus seam-bowling allrounder Moises Henriques and spinners Lyon and Xavier Doherty. Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phil Hughes, Steve Smith, Brad Haddin, Moises Henriques, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Xavier Doherty. 1152 IST And here’s Ayaz Memon with his preview for the Test on SportsTalk. He believes that Tests matches are not there to try out new players unless really necessary: “Even if you may be 4-0 up, you want to put out your best team in the fifth Test rather than give out chances to others. That makes no sense unless there are many other failures. But in this series, nobody has failed for India. The only guy who hasn’t done well enough is Harbhajan but he’s also got wickets.” Watch the preview HERE . 1137 IST Australia coach Mickey Arthur: “We are in a good place and we are moving forward now.” Of course, you are. And on twitter, @mohanstatsman is having some fun. - Shikhar Dhawan will have to wait.Remember P Jayawardene’s debut in Kandy 2000, didn’t bat or field. Then had to wait 2 years for his next Test. - Nothing can be worse than Rohit Sharma’s Test debut at Nagpur in Feb 2010. Got injured playing football, Yet to play a Test after 3 years! 1114 IST Dark clouds now hovering around. Lunch at 11:30 am. Umpires will make another inspection at 12:00. There is still a lot of water on the covers.

  0927 IST Umpires are hopeful of some play. Play will start 30 mins early on the remaining four days but there is heavy rain forecast in the afternoon. For the moment, still no word on when the game will start. 0834 IST There has been some overnight rain and the covers are on in Mohali. The rain, however, has stopped. Still no official word on whether play will be delayed. A high of 27 degrees celsius and a low of 14 degrees celsius. The super soppers are out and hard at work. 0820 IST India go into the third Test in a fairly confident frame of mind. They are leading the series 2-0 and Australian cricket is in the middle of a never-seen-before crisis. [caption id=“attachment_660355” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dhoni and Ashwin have been spectacular for India in this series. Reuters[/caption] But Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team cannot afford to become complacent. Rather, they have to find a way to focus their mental energies on the game alone. There are some questions that India’s players need to answer as well. Shikhar Dhawan takes over from Virender Sehwag as opener and he will need to prove that he is good enough to do the job for a long time. He should at least be given the opportunity to do so. Harbhajan Singh, if he is picked, will get yet another opportunity to find some form. Ishant Sharma also will need to get more wickets if he wants to continue being part of the team. On the other hand, Australia are without two of their first-team players from the second Test (Shane Watson and James Pattinson have been excluded from the selection process) and two more (Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja) are also missing. In other team news, Nathan Lyon is expected to be back in the team. Glenn Maxwell will get some rest.