Gill’s second Test century and Kohli’s first fifty in more than a year lead India’s strong reply to Australia’s 480

While the pitch was affording a little more help to the slow bowlers, it was not as up and down as earlier in the series, which meant that it was relatively easy to occupy the crease. That said, when Australia’s bowlers bowled to their fields, restricting the scoring opportunities to one side of the pitch, runs did not come freely.

Shubman Gill made the most of his return to the Test team, scoring a crisp century, his fifth in international cricket in this year alone. The KL Rahul debate is most likely put firmly on the backburner now, with Gill making a pleasing 128.

Gill was clever in his approach, understanding that scoring against the new ball, or when the quick bowlers came on to relieve the spinners, was the best option. When Mitchell Starc or Cameron Green pushed the ball up a bit too much, Gill pounced, driving beautifully through the off side.

The thing about Gill is that when he is going well, he doesn’t just get the job done, he is extremely easy on the eye. Compact in his stance, economical in movement and decisive with stroke play, Gill’s 128 came off 235 balls. The rest of the batsmen managed 152 off 361 balls, and this tells you just how good Gill was on the day.

But, it was not only the quick bowlers that Gill took on. As he neared his century, Gill came down the pitch to hit Nathan Lyon back over his head and then pulled out the slog sweep to get to the milestone.

For the first part of the day, Gill had Cheteshwar Pujara for company. Pujara looked in no difficulty at all out in the middle and fell against the run of play, on 42, trapped in front by Todd Murphy. It seemed to be an error in judging the line and that was compounded by a wasted DRS appeal.With Pujara gone, Gill found an able ally in Virat Kohli, who scored his first half-century since the Cape Town Test match in the beginning of last year.

Kohli might have been a touch shaky early on half-edging a couple of deliveries, but once he put his head down and defended with purpose, getting a long stride in, there was little the bowlers could do to disturb him. If anything, the heat provided the biggest challenge, with Gill beginning to cramp.

Kohli helped his partner out in this period, looking to be a bit more positive and taking responsibility for keeping the scoreboard ticking over. The pair added 58 for the third wicket, when Gill fell, trying to work a full ball from Lyon to leg. It was a rare lapse in concentration and perhaps a bit of a tired stroke and when the bat failed to make contact with the ball it left the umpire with a straightforward LBW decision.

Kohli continued his vigil at the crease, not really looking to dominate the bowling. For batsmen of his quality and standing, this can be a challenge in itself. For the best part of his career Kohli has been the one dictating terms when he is out in the middle. But there are occasions when even the greatest players in the world have to put their ego aside and just do what the team needs.

On the day, Kohli did that to perfection, reaching an unbeaten 59 off 128 balls.

In three days of cricket in this Test match, only 13 wickets have fallen. The same number of wickets had fallen on a single day on pitches that were skewed more heavily in favour of the spinners. For this Test match to get an outright result, it’s going to take an extraordinary piece of bowling, some terrible batting or a bit of both.

From here on, India will know that they need only to bat out the best part of the fourth day to ensure that they cannot lose the game. With seven wickets in hand, on this surface, there is no reason to believe this won’t happen.

For once in the series there is an air of predictability when it comes to the batting. There is a familiar feel to watching Indian batsmen playing spin on home soil. If Kohli can go big, and get that Test century that his fans are longing for, India back themselves to put enough on the board to then allow scoreboard pressure to do its thing on Australia