Australian champions Steve Smith and Pat Cummins helped the hosts to a strong position midway through the second day of the Fourth Test for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the MCG before India squandered a promising start with a huge mistake.

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With the series squared at 1-all and Australia desperate to win the prized trophy back for the first time in a decade, the former captain Smith batted superbly when posting his second century in succession — and the 34th of his career — as Australia reached 474.

Cummins was then superb with the ball, striking in the infancy of India’s first innings to remove his struggling Indian counterpart Rohit Sharma before claiming the inform KL Rahul before tea on a day where a new record for a second day crowd at the MCG was set.

Chasing a massive first innings total, Yashavi Jaiswal batted superbly in partnership with Virat Kohli in front of a crowd of 85,147 until a horrible mix-up sparked a collapse in the final 30 minutes. It takes the attendance beyond 172,000 for the first two days.

India will resume on Saturday morning at 5-164 with Rishabh Pant not out on 6 and Ravindra Jadeja unbeaten on 4.

‘FREED HIMSELF UP’: SMITH FLOURISHES AFTER SCRAPPING EXPERIMENT

Steve Smith’s eccentricity at the MCG prompted flashbacks of the fidgety right-hander that thwarted England during the 2019 Ashes.

Having been beaten on the outside edge on consecutive deliveries on Friday morning after resuming on 68 not out, Smith gave Indian seamer Jasprit Bumrah a congratulatory thumbs up, yelling: “That’s well bowled. Nice ball.”

The New South Welshman squealed in frustration when an outswinger evaded his defences, throwing his hands in disgust after missing a cut stroke.

The antics seem strange, but they’re a reliable indicator of when he’s switched on. The champion is at his most damaging when every delivery becomes a spectacle, whether that be a dramatic leave or a full-blooded pull shot.

Having started the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a string of low scores, pundits were questioning whether Smith was past his best. In front of a packed MCG crowd, he proved yet again that is not the case, as Fox Cricket expert Adam Gilchrist noted.

“It was just a masterclass. He seems to have freed himself up and realised that batting is fun again,” Gilchrist said.

Last week at the Gabba, Smith broke an 18-month century drought in Tests, but it was one of the least convincing hundreds of his career to date.

He awkwardly scratched his way towards fifty after surviving a handful of early half-chances, only settling in the middle once the Kookaburra lost its shine.

But the 35-year-old was in complete control throughout his Boxing Day century in the Victorian capital. He left with authority, defended with confidence and drove with a touch of class. Most importantly, he also played with freedom.

After anchoring the Australian innings on day one, he added precious runs with the tail on Friday morning, putting the hosts in a dominant position. With a strike rate of 71.06, it was also his fastest Test century in nine years.

Smith now boasts 34 Test hundreds, the same as modern greats Brian Lara and Sunil Gavaskar. Only Sachin Tendulkar (510, Jacques Kallis (45), Ricky Ponting (41), Kumar Sangakkara (38), Joe Root (36) and Rahul Dravid (36) have scored more tons than the Aussie.

At second drop, he has 6209 Test runs at 61.47, numbers that only one cricketer betters – South African legend Jacques Kallis.

Heading into the 2024/25 summer, all the conjecture surrounding Smith was on whether he would open the batting against India. Thankfully, the experiment was scrapped.

Having returned to the middle order, Smith has rediscovered his best cricket, just as teammate Usman Khawaja predicted at the start of the summer.

“I’ve always loved Steve Smith batting at No. 4, I haven’t shied away from that,” Khawaja told Fox Cricket in August.

“I know Steve Smith can score runs at one, two, three, four, five or six, but the man averages 60 at four, so my preference has always been Smudge at four.

“I love seeing him come in at No. 4 … you get two wickets, and who do you get walking in? The best batsman in the world.”

AUSSIE CAPTAIN PEAKING WITH SERIES ON THE LINE

As brilliantly as Smith batted, Cummins can lay claim to being back to his best as well after a slow start to the summer in Perth when questions were raised about a dip in his pace.

The 31-year-old was far from his economical best in Perth when taking 3-153 from almost 41 overs in a Test where the Aussies were whacked in the west.

But he has rebounded strongly and now sits in second position on the wickets table behind the brilliant Jasprit Bumrah for the series with 16* wickets, which includes the scalps of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in the session leading into tea on the second day.

He has also been very handy with the bat, with his 49 on Friday assisting Smith reach his century while also putting Australia in a dominant position in the Test after the first innings.

The Australian captain was also in the fray when pouncing quickly on Jaiswal’s push to mid-on, rifling the ball back to wicketkeeper Alex Carey when making the most of a horrible mistake from the talented Indian opener.

After tailing off in recent summers, Cummins and the Australians were mindful of ensuring they were fresh enough to fire for the entirety of the series against India this summer.

The merits of the approach will not be known until the end of the series at the SCG, but former England captain Michael Vaughan has no doubt the spanking in Perth sparked a strong response from Australia.

Aside from the final day in Brisbane, where Australia threw caution to the wind in the hope of conjuring a miracle, they have largely dominated since Perth.

“The Aussies have played well for the last three games. They have shown their real class,” Vaughan told foxsports.com.au.

“All right, there’s question marks about some of the batting, but I think that’s more down to the pitches that they’re playing on. But they’ve really impressed me in Adelaide, Brisbane, and now here.

“Sometimes a team can need a little bit of a prod and a poke and I think the bear was stoked in Perth, and the realisation that Pat and his team were a long way short of probably cricket fitness, longer format game time.

“I wouldn’t think that you’d want to risk that too often, coming into a series without the amount of cricket to go one-nil down to guarantee that you’ll come back, because you might not come back.

“But on this occasion, it’s like they’ve come back with a great amount of skill.”

THE OPENERS OF A NEW AGE

A day after Sam Konstas served notice of his remarkable talent, Indian opener Yashasvi Jaiswal produced a superb rebuttal to ensure his nation remained in contention in the fourth Test at the MCG, at least until his youthful exuberance got the better of him.

At a ground where India have clinched wins on the past two tours, Jaiswal batted superbly for the best part of two sessions in his best performance since the match-winning century in the opening Test of the summer in Perth.

The left-hander’s shot-making was superb, with his scoring wagon-wheel as enviable as Konstas’s a day earlier, as he made 82 runs from 118 balls, which included 11 fours and a stunning six.

Importantly with a view to the remainder of the series, and also his future, he was able to find a way to handle the brilliance of Mitchell Starc at the start of the innings and looked far more comfortable against the Australian fast bowlers.

Then came the mistake that may have changed the game. After surviving a DRS review off the bowling of Mitch Marsh moments earlier, Jaiswal set off for a run that was never there, with Virat Kohli opting against running.

This left Jaiswal stranded as Cummins at mid-on threw the ball to wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who was able to walk in to take the stumps off in a moment that let the record crowd and Fox Cricket’s experts in disbelief in the commentary box.

“It is disaster for India. Ecstasy for Australia. That is terrible from an Indian point of view, just when they had momentum,” Gilchrist said.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan later said it was a mistake that may well have changed the series given India appeared comfortable and on track for a significant first innings score.

“It is a huge moment in the context of the game. It was too high risk. It was not on. And it was not required,” Vaughan said.

“You just can’t make those mistakes against Australia in Australia, when the series is so hot and you are on top. The partnership had just gone beyond 100 and it is a glaring mistake.”

Not long after, Scott Boland was able to remove Kohli for 36 runs from 86 balls to leave India at 4-154, still 320 runs behind Australia.

Fox Cricket analyst Kerry O’Keeffe said the run-out had clearly changed the momentum of the match.

“You sense that is the biggest moment in the series, at 1-all, when somebody like Jaiswal is in full flow, (a) high-scoring draw (was) potentially there for him, and he is gone,” O’Keeffe said in commentary.

SHARMA’S SERIES FROM HELL

A fortnight prior to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series, former Australian spinner Kerry O’Keeffe gazed into the crystal ball and plucked a prediction that has proven spot-on.

The Fox Cricket expert was aware that Sharma, whose torrid series continued at the MCG on Friday, would miss the opening Test of the summer due to the birth of his child.

But he raised the point that by the end of the Australian summer, Sharma may have his regrets about opting to travel downunder again as a 37-year-old leading his side.

“Rohit Sharma may miss one or two Tests, but he is the captain, and Australia always tries to torpedo the visiting captain,” he told foxsports.com.au during a chat at the MCG.

“It is a tactic they have used forever and they will go very hard at Rohit Sharma.”

As much as this has been a bowler-dominated series, every batter has managed to post at least one start so far this summer, including the banished Nathan McSweeney.

The exception is Sharma, who is clearly at risk of following the well-trodden path of skippers including Jimmy Adams, Mike Atherton and Andrew Flintoff to leave Australia broken down.

With Glenn McGrath making a personal pledge each summer during his grand career to take down a star batter or skipper, they were among the champions who have faltered in Australia.

Sharma arrived in Australia struggling for form and his deeds with the bat at No.6 were dismal before the decision to head to his favoured position at the top of the order in Melbourne. It did not prove a fix.

In his four innings in this Border-Gavaskar Trophy, he has made just 22 runs, with his top score 10 in Brisbane.

The manner with which he failed on Friday when chipping Pat Cummins to Scott Boland at mid-on was another example of his indecision and struggle for timing, as ex-England captain Michael Vaughan said when noting he has averaged 11 in his last 14 Test innings.

“That was a really big mistake from Rohit Sharma. It is a nothing shot. It is one of his favourite shots, Rohit Sharma, the swivel-pull,” the Fox Cricket analyst said.

“It was too early in the innings. He has not got used to the pace or the bounce. It is a sad state for the Indian captain.”

Amid speculation in Indian media that another big name is considering following Ashwin’s steps into retirement, former Australian selector and middle-order star Mark Waugh has no doubt Sharma’s future is in peril.

“Unless Rohit Sharma can do something in the last three innings, I think his career could certainly be coming to an end,” Waugh said.

That would be a bitter pill for the champion opener to swallow, for as Harsha Bhogle told foxsports.com.au when discussing the elder statesmen of Indian cricket: “It is a different thing to finish in India. You always want to finish in front of your home fans.

A SUMMER WITHOUT SPIN

Be it the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah or the brittleness of the batting throughout this Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India has been unable to exploit an area of dominance in its two most recent successes in Australia.

In the 2018/19 and 2020/21 triumphs, India’s spinners were able to extract enough turn and bounce to influence the tone of several Tests, no matter the venue or pitch they were facing.

With the recently-retired Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja excelling, the Indians were able to turn the Aussies over in both series when securing a combined 43 wickets at 27.76.

Champion off-spinner Nathan Lyon went head-to-head with the Indians in the 2018/19 series, taking 21 wickets for the summer at an average of 30.42.

But the New South Welshman was outperformed by India’s multi-pronged spinning attack three years ago when snaring only nine wickets at 55.11.

India’s past two tours were four Test series and the comparison in their deeds with spin this summer demonstrate the reduced impact Ashwin, Jadeja and Washington Sundar have had.

The Indian spinners have taken only seven wickets in seven Australian innings so far at an average of 46.28 when rotating through all three until Ashwin’s retirement and this Test.

After producing the worst Test figures in his career in Brisbane in the opening innings, Jadeja was good in the first innings in Melbourne when finishing with 3-78 from 23 overs.

He ended the thrill-a-minute ride from Sam Konstas when trapping him LBW on Boxing Day before snaring Cummins and Starc on Friday, but all three added valuable runs for Australia.

Sundar, who took a couple of wickets in Perth before being overlooked for the Adelaide and Brisbane Tests, secured the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne when the No.3 was on 72.

As a nod to the pace-friendly pitches this summer, nor has Lyon had a major imprint on the conditions either.

The 37-year-old took 1-55 in Brisbane from 23 overs, bowled only one over in Adelaide and snared two wickets from 44 overs in two innings in the opening match in Western Australia. He finished with 0-18 from five overs on Friday.