Pucovski rides luck to impress on debut at SCG Online

Will Pucovski posted a halfcentury on debut as Australia made the early running on raininterrupted opening day of the third cricket test against India.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat at the SCG, giving Pucovski an immediate taste of test cricket as the 22-year-old opener started the innings with veteran David Warner.

Warner lasted only eight balls and scored five runs on his comeback from injury before he chased a full and wide ball from Mohammed Siraj and was caught at first slip with the total at six.

Pucovski continued with Marnus Labuschagne and looked at times assured and at times lucky to still be at the crease. He had three reprieves on his way to 50, a milestone he passed in the over before tea with consecutive boundaries against Navdeep Saini – the first two balls in test cricket for the Indian fast bowler.

He survived a pair of dropped catches from wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and a missed chance for a run out to reach the second interval unbeaten on 54. He was out soon after the resumption when Saini trapped him lbw for 62, a promising innings containing four boundaries.

Pucovski was on 26 when he got a fine edge to Ravichandran Ashwin and Pant, standing up at the stumps to the off-spinner, wasn’t able to hold the catch.

He was on 32 when he gloved an attempted pull shot and Pant turned but wasn’t able to cleanly grab a catch despite two swipes.

There was also a running mixup when he was on 39. Pucovski appeared to be distracted by Jasprit Bumrah slipping in the outfield and was sent back by

Labuschagne as both batsmen went for the same end – narrowly beating the throw back to the stumps.

The Australians punished anything short from Ashwin, not letting him get into a settled line or rhythm that caused the home team problems in the first two tests.

Pucovski was on 14 and Australia was 21-1 after 7.1 overs when rain-shortened opening session ended when lunch was called early.

The four-match series is tied 1-1 after Australia won the opening day-night match in Adelaide by eight wickets and India responded with an eight-wicket win in Melbourne last week.

India also made two changes for the SCG match, with Rohit Sharma replacing opener Mayank Agarwal after showing no signs of discomfort from the hamstring injury that sidelined him for the limited-overs portion of the tour and the first two tests. He’s also deputy to stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane, whose gritty century guided India to victory in Melbourne.

India made an enforced change to their bowling attack, with 28-year-old right-arm fast bowler Saini replacing Umesh Yadav, who joined fellow fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma on the injured list. –

Australia were 152-2 midway through the final session. For the latest on the third test at the SCG, go to stuff.co.nz