Australia won the toss and elected to bat in the second Test of their four-match series against India in Melbourne that started on Saturday.
However, the home side suffered early setbacks, losing three top order wickets inside 15 overs and reached 65 for 3 at lunch.
First, Joe Burns was caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant off Jasprit Bumrah for a duck. The other opener, Matthew Wade, batted with intent to reach 30 before he was caught by Ravindra Jadeja off the bowling of Ravichandran Ashwin. India soon got the prize wicket of star batsman Steven Smith, who fell for a duck, being caught by Cheteshwar Pujara off the bowling of Ashwin.
At lunch, Marnus Labuschagne was batting on 26 and Travis Head on 4.
While Australia are unchanged, India made four changes to its playing eleven.
India brought in Ravindra Jadeja and Rishabh Pant and handed out debuts to Shubman Gill and Mohammad Siraj in place of regular skipper Virat Kohli, Wriddhiman Saha, Prithvi Shaw and the injured Mohammad Shami.
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India are trailing the four-match series 0-1 after losing the opening day/night Test in Adelaide by eight wickets.
The iconic Boxing Day Test, second match of the series, will be India's 100th game in the traditional format against Australia.
Teams:
India: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: Tim Paine (captain), Matthew Wade, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
(With PTI inputs)
