Australia vs India: Travis Head disapproves of MCG crowd booing Mitchell Marsh

Melbourne: Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, who replaced local boy Peter Handscomb to get a place in the playing XI, got a hostile reception from the crowd during the opening day of their ongoing Boxing Day Test match against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Wednesday. The behaviour did not go down well with Australian batsman Travis Head who termed it as "pretty poor".

The spectators, who were apparently unhappy over Marsh replacing Handscomb in the team, welcomed the bowler with loud booing two times during the Day One of the third Test.

Head said that such sort of behaviour from the crowd is something that is usually witnessed with players like Virat Kohli but serving the same treatment to Marsh is not great.

"I don't think it's great, obviously we see it a bit with [Indian captain Virat] Kohli as well. But for Mitch, who worked his bum off today, I thought he bowled exceptionally well, I thought he created great pressure, in tough conditions, fought really hard. So I don't think any Australian cricketer in Australia deserves to be booed," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Head, as saying.

"I understand a Victorian crowd, and Petey (Peter Handscomb) obviously missing out, but I think it's pretty poor," he added.

Riding on the back of a smashing 76 runs innings by debutant Mayank Agarwal, India posted a total of 215 runs at the loss of two wickets by the end of Day One's play. Indian skipper Virat Kohli and right-hand batsman Cheteshwar Pujara are currently holding the crease for the team at the respective scores of 47 and 68.