Double strike rocks India

India squandered a solid start by losing two quick wickets before lunch on day one of the third Test against Australia as the two teams resumed their controversy-hit series.

After India won the toss and elected to bat, they were 74 for two at lunch, with Rahul Dravid on two and Sachin Tendulkar on 13 at the WACA Ground.

Indian openers Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer weathered Australia's early pace blitz to put on 57 for the first wicket, but both fell in the space of two runs to hand the ascendancy back to the home side.

The recalled Sehwag rode his luck early in his first Test in more than a year, playing and missing numerous times against an unlucky Stuart Clark.

He twice edged Clark, who troubled the batsmen constantly, just out of the reach of Andrew Symonds at third slip.

However, Sehwag ran out of fortune when he feathered a short ball from Mitchell Johnson, who had been the least venomous of the Australian bowlers, through to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist on 29.

India's previous best opening stand of the series was 26.

Jaffer, buoyed by an impressive tour match innings in Canberra, looked a more composed player than he had in making 22 runs at 5.50 in the first two Tests.

He survived a confident appeal for caught behind from Clark when struggled to evade a bouncer on 16, but replays showed the ball struck his arm guard.

However, without adding to his score he chased a wide ball from Lee and got an outside edge through to Gilchrist.

Lee, Johnson and Shaun Tait all bowled in excess of 150 kilometres (94 miles) per hour during the session.

The match follows a week of damaging fall-out in the wake of the contentious second Test in Sydney, which was marred by claims of racial abuse, poor sportsmanship and poor umpiring.

The Australians won the Test by 122 runs to take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the series, and victory here would mean a world record 17th consecutive Test win.

The home side made two changes, with injured batsman Matthew Hayden replaced by uncapped opener Chris Rogers and fast bowler Shaun Tait coming in for spinner Brad Hogg.

India also made two changes, with spinner Harbhajan Singh dropped for seamer Irfan Pathan, and the struggling Yuvraj Singh replaced by Sehwag.

Australia, who went into the match without a specialist spinner for the first time since India's previous Test at the WACA in 1992, are undefeated since beating South Africa by 184 runs here two years ago.

The existing record of 16 straight Tests was set under Ponting's predecessor, Steve Waugh, from October 1999 to February 2001.

SCOREBOARD
India 1st innings
W. Jaffer c Gilchrist b Lee 16
V. Sehwag c Gilchrist b Johnson 29
R. Dravid not out 2
S. Tendulkar not out 13
Extras 4lb, 5w, 5nb 14
Total for 2 wkts at lunch 74
Fall of wkts 1-57, 2-59
Bowling Lee 7-0-32-1 (5w, 4nb)
Johnson 8-3-16-1
Clark 7-2-14-0
Tait 2-1-8-0 (1nb)