After an eventful opening day where a debutant spinner turned the fortunes of the home team, onus will be on India's batsmen to challenge Australian on day 2 of the fourth and final Test in Dharamsala today. KL Rahul and Murali Vijay will start from scratch after Kuldeep Yadav's four-wicket haul restricted the Aussies to 300 all out on Saturday. Australia have four specialist bowlers and on a wicket that has enough for both pacers and spinners, it should be a great day of cricket.
9:04 AM: Kuldeep Yadav was the star for India on Day 1 with four wickets on his debut and now the responsibility will fall on the batsmen to take the hosts to a commendable total in this crucial encounter.
9:00 AM: Welcome to Day 2 action of the fourth Test match between India and Australia in Dharamsala!
India's batting will face an acid test of sorts in Dharamsala. Minus Virat Kohli, it will be a test of character for the top order and particularly Ajinkya Rahane, who is leading in this Test match.
Openers KL Rahul, who faced all six deliveries from Josh Hazlewood, and Murali Vijay will hope to give India a strong start. The pair's best stand has been a 91 in India's first innings in Ranchi. The match had ended in a draw.
India have shown the faith in their five specialist batsmen although Wriddhiman Saha has a century in Ranchi and Ravichandran Ashwin is no rabbit with the bat. But Australia will back themselves on a wicket that has juice for their pacers.
Day 1 was evenly balanced between the Australian batsmen and Indian bowlers.
Australia skipper Steve Smith's third century of the series and India spinner Kuldeep Yadav's memorable debut left the fourth and final test between the teams evenly poised.
Smith, comfortably the leading scorer of the series, made 111 as he and David Warner, who scored 56, added 134 runs for the second wicket to help Australia dominate the morning session after opting to bat.
Left-arm wrist-spinner Yadav, an inspirational selection in India's bold move to go with five bowlers, led the hosts' strong comeback in the post-lunch session when five wickets tumbled for 64 runs.
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