Aussie skipper Pat Cummins is still confident of achieving a result in the third Test, despite a terrible weather forecast for the final two days.

Barely a quarter of the allotted overs were bowled on day one and three combined as rolling showers and eventually bad light called an early stumps.

The forecast for Tuesday isn’t much better – high chance of showers, and the chance of a ‘possibly severe’ thunderstorm.

And Wednesday? Forget about it. Rain is expected from late morning.

What that means is for Pat Cummins’ men to get a result, their best shot is to bowl India out quickly today, enforce the follow-on, and do it again.

India still need 195 runs to avoid the follow-on.

Speaking on ABC Radio after play on day three, Cummins was well aware of the importance of the first hour this morning.

“(Tuesday) is going to dictate what happens, if we can get the ball in the right areas and take a few early ones. That obviously brings in the extra card of the follow-on,” he said.

“The fantastic effort of the batters in the first innings gives us that option as well. When you score 450 and have a team four for 50, you hold all the cards. We’ve certainly got the options there.

“It’s just going to see how it plays out in that first session (of day four), I’d say.”

It’s been nearly two years since Cummins last enforced the follow-on, sending South Africa back in during the 2023 Sydney Test.

It was another heavily weather-effected match, where doing so was the only way a result would have been possible. That match ended in a draw.

Only once in the past decade has an Australian team won a Test having asked a team to follow on, in the 2019 Adelaide Test.