India lost their first wicket cheaply in the Boxing Day Test when captain Rohit Sharma was cramped for room and skied his pull shot off Pat Cummins to Scott Boland at mid-wicket.
It continued Rohit's bad run of form in the Border-Gavaskar series. After missing the first Test for family reasons, he has not scored more than 10 in four innings and on Friday was bundled out for three.
This is in stark contrast to Sam Konstas, Australia's youngest Test opener, who lit up day one with his audacious innings of 60 on debut and set the table for a solid first-innings of 474.
And as the 19-year-old made the best-possible start to his Test career, there is speculation the 37-year-old Rohit might be on the verge of retiring from red-ball international cricket.
Out of form Indian senior statesman Sharma might not be long for Test match cricket. (James Ross/AAP PHOTOS)
Rohit, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja retired from international T20s in June after India won the World Cup.
With this series tied 1-1, India rejigged their top order for Melbourne by dropping out-of-sorts No.3 Shubman Gill.
Rohit returned from No.6 to the top of the order and opened with Yashasvi Jaiswal, as in-form KL Rahul moved down one place to take Gill's spot.
Adding to the potential implications of Rohit's cheap dismissal, Gill made way for allrounder Washington Sundar, giving India a long tail for the fourth Test.
The nothing shot that sent Rohit back to the pavilion had former Australian captain Ricky Ponting scathing in his criticism.
"That is just a lazy, not switched on, not up for the moment type of shot," Ponting said on the Seven Network.
"He has been known as one of the best hookers and pullers of the ball since he made his debut, but that is just not there, it is nothing.
"It is not committed. It is not looking to be aggressive. He is just looking to tap it on the head.
"Might have held in the wicket, yes, might have seamed away from him a fraction, but if you are going to survive against this Australian attack you have to be switched on and making good decisions. If you are not, they will knock you over every time."
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