Watch: Shubman Gill's brainfade leaves India in shambles, Rohit pinned by Cummins as Australia boss WTC final

When Rohit Sharma got off the mark with a confident pull shot off Mitchell Starc and his opening partner Shubman Gill got Sunil Gavaskar drooling in the very next over with a picture-perfect cover drive off Pat Cummins, the Indian fans believed. It was a welcome sight after their bowlers were battered for a day and a half by Steve Smith and Travis Head. Moreover, it sort of resurrected the hope that India can pose a challenge to Australia's mammoth first innings total of 469 in the World Test Championship final.

Rohit and Gill's positive show continued for the next couple of overs but it hit a roadblock when Cummins took Starc off the attack just after two overs and brought Scott Boland in. The big Victorian, who got to play only because Josh Hazlewood was ruled out due to a side strain, started off with a testing maiden.

Cummins fed off that confidence and came up with by far the best delivery from the Australian seamers in the first six overs. Using his height, Cummins rose high and bowled a fuller-length cross-seam delivery. The length of the delivery had Rohit pinned. To make matters worse for the Indian captain, it also came back in and cannoned into the pads. The umpire's finger was up in a flash. Rohit had a brief discussion with Gill but decided to walk off for 15. And replays showed it was a correct call as the ball would have crashed onto the stumps.

In the next over, Gill had his own version of 'Brainfade' if we may call that. After not putting a foot wrong in his short stay in the middle, Gill was done in by the visual perception created by Boland. Gill had defended the previous deliveries quite comfortably but this time, Boland pitched the ball slightly away from the off stump. Gill thought it will go away but it didn't. The ball came back in like the previous deliveries and rammed into his stumps.

VIDEO: Shubman Gill shoulders arms, ball crashes onto his stumps in WTC final

It took a while for Gill to gather himself and make his way to the pavilion for 15. He was surprised by the inward movement for sure but he was disappointed more so because of the error in his judgement. The ball hit the top of the middle and then the off stump. No way, it would have breached his defence if he had offered a shot.

In a span of a couple of overs, India's promising start gave way to their worst nightmares. They lost both their openers inside the first seven overs.

The Indian bowling unit made an impressive comeback as it restricted Australia's first innings score to 469 on the second day. Starting the day at 327 for 3, Australia added 142 more runs while losing the remaining seven wickets as Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) were the two prominent contributors.

The duo added 285 for the fourth wicket while Alex Carey (48) was the other significant scorer.

Mohammed Siraj was the most successful bowler for India with figures of 4/108 in 28.3 overs while Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur took two wickets apiece.