Australia vs India First Test Day Three live: highlights, videos, blog from Nagpur Cricket

Axar Patel’s best Test score of 84 and a telling guest appearance from Mohammad Shami helped India to 400 overall in the first innings.

Todd Murphy ended with seven wickets but ultimately it will be Australia’s batsmen who decide whether or not this Test lasts a fourth day.

Follow every important moment live with News Corp’s cricket writer Ben Horne below.

4:59 PM PATEL OUT

The bail almost didn’t come down, but Pat Cummins takes Patel to a big hit. The Indian innings end at 400 and the hosts lead by 223. It has to be said that Australia has little chance of bowling again.

16:40 PATEL’S HIGHEST INNINGS

Axar Patel’s best Test innings before that was a score of 52.

But he’s no slouch with the bat, averaging 22.6 out of 13 innings.

What a luxury for India to have a player of their quality in 9th place.

Patel is currently stuck at 76, which is 27 more than Australia’s top scorer Marnus Labuschagne.

4.19 PM INDIA’S NINTH WICKET STAND WITH 50 ROUNDS

Mohammad Shami goes berserk and long grabs Todd Murphy to push India’s lead past 200.

Shami and Axar Patel laid on more than 50 for the ninth wicket.

Shami has a top score in Test cricket of 56 and is currently 36 from 42 balls.

16:12 AUSTRALIA NO REVIEWS LEFT

Australia have burned their latest rating and Axar Patel and Mohammad Shami are piling on the pain in Nagpur.

As it stands Shami 21 is not out and Axar 69 is not out with India 8-363 as we enter this update.

The lead is approaching the 200 mark and one has to wonder if India will even beat again in this test.

3.45 PM: LUCK THROUGH HIS FINGERS: LYON’S FALSE LUCK CONTINUES

Australia’s problems have worsened after a dropped Scott Boland catch in the outfield.

With India’s lead now 163, Australia can’t afford any more damage.

But Boland let a ski chance from Indian goalkeeper Mohammad Shami slip through his fingers over his shoulder in the outfield.

Nathan Lyon got pretty lucky in the innings with DRS and also dropped catches.

15:27 “HE COULD DO EIGHT”: MURPHY EYES RECORD HAUL

Todd Murphy claimed danger man Ravindra Jadeja’s crucial wicket early on day three, but it’s a dismissal that won’t necessarily boost Australia’s confidence.

Day three sees a noticeable increase in bite in the Nagpur surface just as Australia prepares to fill up for their second innings and chase a 150-plus deficit.

However, Murphy’s dream debut has continued and now concedes six wickets.

Jadeja threw her arms around one who was coming back and grabbed his stump.

Fox cricket expert Mark Waugh believes Murphy could finish at eight and repeat Jason Krejza’s debut at the same venue in 2008.

Krejza recorded 8-215 on the debut and Murphy follows with numbers of 6-83.

Jadeja was the key wicket for Australia, with his outstanding innings finishing on 70 balls from 185.

But as Waugh said, the wicket was a blow to both teams because it’s Australia who have to bat on that deck again soon.

Australia also lost a DRS review after a failed bid from Nathan Lyon for a lbw complaint.

3.14PM HAS AUSSIE SAVIOR JUST BOARDED A FLIGHT TO INDIA?

Australian superstar Mitchell Starc has been spotted at Sydney Airport ready to help his team in India.

The first Test isn’t even halfway through, but Australia’s hopes continue to dwindle the longer Indian pairing Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel stay put.

India is 7-324 and leads with 147 runs with three wickets still in hand, an ominous sign of Australia’s chances of staying in the game.

However, there are serious hopes that Starc will return to Delhi for the second Test next week.

Starc has bowled the nets at full speed and maintained his workload despite having the middle finger on his bowling hand in a splint since severely damaging the tendon during the MCG Test.

A proven genius in subcontinental conditions, the left-hander helps Nathan Lyon enormously at bowling as he provides footprints for the off-spinner.

For Australia, they can’t get Starc to India soon enough.

The selectors saw the merits of gambling on Travis Head as the opening batsman for this series and reviewing the radical plan could be his only option back in India.

Australia’s startling decision to rule out Head for the first Test has come under scrutiny, particularly given that their preferred left-hander, Matthew Renshaw, was out for a golden duck and has now suffered a knee injury.

Renshaw passed a fitness test after the scans and returned to the field in the middle session on day two, but even if he were eliminated from the second test, Head could struggle to reclaim his place in the middle rankings with all-rounder Cameron Green some admission when appropriate.

As such, Head’s best shot at a reprieve may be if the circumstances at the end of this series prompt the selectors to reinvent him as a swashbuckling opener.

News Corp said back in December the selectors hadn’t ruled out Head as an option at the top of the order, particularly in India, where he could attack from the start and not worry about getting bogged down in defending against the spinners.

National selector George Bailey hinted after the Brisbane Test, when Head hit a matchwinning 92 on a treacherous Gabba deck, Australia might be ready to think beyond the court with the star left-hander in India.

“Pat (Captain Pat Cummins) drives this team to be very, very adaptable,” Bailey said back in December.

“So I think there are also opportunities for players in the XI to play different roles at different times.

“Whether that also applies to Travis on subcontinent tours. (We will) wait and see.”

It’s hard to imagine selectors taking any rash moves against veteran openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja Mid-Series.

When the veteran pair finished the home summer with big hundreds, it made Head’s plan as an opener unlikely.

But Fox cricket pundit and former Australian great Brad Haddin believes it would have been wiser to move Head up the order than to drop him when he was arguably the Test team’s No. 1 batsman in the summer.

“You can understand why they left him out. They don’t trust him how he stacks up against Spin,” Haddin said.

“But the only thing they could have done was order him to take over the game. Because when he’s ready and the spin comes, he’s a completely different player.”

Whether they win, lose or draw at Nagpur, the selectors are unlikely to make any further changes unless forced by injury or Green returning from injury.

Coaches Andrew McDonald and Tony Dodemaide are the duty selectors in India.

But depending on how the series progresses, maybe moving Khawaja or Warner down the order to accommodate an attacking weapon like Head at the top could be considered.

At the age of 36, Warner and Khawaja are likely to be entering their final year in Test cricket but it would be unusual for players of their experience and class to be pushed out of the middle series of the lineup.

Test great Ricky Ponting defended selectors over controversial call to drop head.

“The more I thought about it, the fact that they played Matt Renshaw for me in Sydney meant they probably had other plans for him,” Ponting said on the ICC Review Podcast.

“Obviously the most immediate plan was for him to bat mid-rank for Australia in this Test series against India.

“And if you look at that, if they want to keep him, they couldn’t afford to keep Travis Head either, because then they’d have five lefties in the top seven.”

Other Test greats including Steve Waugh, Michael Clarke, Matthew Hayden and Kerry O’Keeffe have questioned the decision to forego Head without even giving it a chance to show its wares in India.

Originally released as Australia vs India First Test Day Three: Follow all the action live from Nagpur