Plenty of rain incoming on the radar, by the way. We’re not looking good today.

“Pretty obvious Mitch Marsh not fit enough to play as all-rounder,” writes Ross McGillivray. “Is his batting good enough to warrant selection? As every footy fan knows, playing guys with injuries in big games is fraught with danger. You can’t just jab a guy’s ankle every day in a five-day Test.”

Can’t argue with the all-rounder bit, as discussed below. As for runs, I suspect Mitch Marsh is a player people are very fast to lose faith in. He was vital last summer, made big runs in all three Pakistan Tests, and Australia would have lost two of them without him. Then he made an important 40 in Wellington when the team was sinking, and a match-winning 80 in Christchurch that set up Carey to pull off that tough chase.

So I think he still has credits, made some runs second dig in Perth this year when Australia were stuffed, and he’s only batted once in Adelaide and once in Brisbane since. Reckon he does still command his place for runs alone, but needs some more pretty soon. It’ll be hard to keep Cameron Green out once he’s fit again.

An email from Tim Thomas: “Given the increasing unpredictability in weather patterns, is it time Test cricket took a page from the surfing world and extended the window for play. Playing 5 days of 7 or 10 with the option for some being called off due to rain or heat, seems like a nice way to ensure a result. Broadcasters and sponsors may never go for it but given how the rest of the week is looking in Brisbane, I think it’d be ideal.”

The issue, Tim, is that administrators are going the other way, wanting to squeeze Tests down to four days. More predictable, easier to schedule. Extended periods would never work because there are costs to having staff and stadiums on standby and those costs increase every day, whereas broadcast revenue for a Test match is a one-off fee for the match, no matter how long it goes. So every extra day is more expenditure against no increase in income, aside from gate receipts which would negligible by day six or more.

The modern schedule is already so crowded that they barely squeeze in two-Test series most of the time, much less series where matches were unpredictably a week or more. So, I like the idea (bring back the timeless Test) but it would be impossible. The WTC final has one reserve day if required, and that’s as far as we’ll get.

“What do you do in the third innings?” asks Ruth Purdue by email. “Block Bumrah and smack the other bowler and see where you get to, or block out the day? Make a game of it with risk of losing?”

I think if Australia had four bowlers they’d be much more inclined to do this. Marsh clearly isn’t reliably fit, despite their protestations, given they used him for two overs with Hazlewood missing. I don’t think they’d want to bowl much more than 50 overs given the workload for Starc and Cummins ahead of Melbourne. But then, Test cricket is tough and you never know when you’ll next be in a winning position. I think it’s worth going for it today, because surely on a fifth-day pitch with rain about they’re a chance to take a few Indian wickets early as they have done in all but one innings this series.

Of course, all that said, we’re currently losing overs again because of weather. So perhaps there’s no point and they might as well save their bowlers and use the day as a batting net.

I’ll tell you who this day’s play does matter to, once they get on. Usman Khawaja. Nathan McSweeney. Marnus Labuschagne. They all need to work their way into this series, Labuschagne’s fifty in Adelaide notwithstanding. They’re on a hiding to nothing, really, if they have to bat against Bumrah on a dark humid day with little to gain, but they have to treat it as a chance to put together a good innings without much riding on it. A free hit.

Here’s a new one. We have a lightning delay. Everybody is leaving the ground, even the ground staff and the camera operators. A big dark thunderhead is cruising by like a container ship.

India trail by 185 coming into the third innings

WICKET! Deep st Carey b Head 31, India 260 for 10

78th over: India 258-9 (Bumrah 10, Deep 29) Lyon another over, they review for a bat-pad catch but there’s no contact.

77th over: India 257-9 (Bumrah 10, Deep 27) So there are 98 overs scheduled for the day, plus the one ball from Cummins (that over counts as part of yesterday). Two overs for a change of innings, if that doesn’t happen at lunch or tea, so two potential changes of innings from here means four overs. Take the total down to 94 overs. Every over India faces here is one less available to Australia for batting, or one less that India might have to face later.

Cummins bowls a snorter, moving off the seam. Bumrah fumbles at them, after Deep rotates strike with a push to point.

76th over: India 256-9 (Bumrah 10, Deep 27) Nathan Lyon rather than Mitchell Starc to start the day. I’d be getting Starc to fire down a yorker. Bumrah essays a sweep that misses the bat, but takes his arm, fine of leg slip for four leg byes. Runs be runs.

75th over: India 252-9 (Bumrah 10, Deep 27) Of course, Cummins only gets one ball, because they came off last night for bad light with five balls bowled of his over. Deep runs it into the cordon along the ground.

Here come Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep with the chance to do a little more thorning in Australian siding. And Pat Cummins with a chance at a five-for.

Here’s my wrap about how much fun it was yesterday.

Preamble