Former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri didn’t filter words as they weighed in on India’s poor bowling performance on Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the MCG.

Steve Smith, who was on 68* overnight, went on to smash a stunning hundred (140) while skipper Pat Cummins made a handy contribution of 49 runs as the hosts racked up a mammoth 474/10 in their first innings.

In the first session, Australian scored 143 runs in 27 overs at the loss of just one wicket. Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah appeared tired and jaded, while skipper Rohit Sharma lacked ideas.

Gavaskar slammed Akash for wasting the second new ball by giving away easy boundaries to Cummins.

"Pretty ordinary blowing. If you have to bowl a bouncer, you get it around the helmet's badge and not around the waist. I'm very disappointed, I'm sorry. This new ball has been wasted. Aakash Deep has been all over the place. He has wasted the new ball by bowling way outside off stump. The Indians have also been sloppy in the field," Gavaskar said on-air.

On the other hand, Shastri was critical of Rohit’s captaincy as he asked why the two spinners were picked when they were not going to be used properly.

"India ran out of ideas. Bowling was pretty ordinary. Spin wasn't used as much as it should have. It took 40 overs for Sundar to bowl. Why did you play two spinners? What was the need if you don't trust them?" Shastri asked in the post-Lunch show on Star Sports.

The duo of Smith and Cummins stitched 112 runs for the seventh wicket, nullifying the slight advantage Jasprit Bumrah had provided his team earlier.

In reply, India were 51/2 at Tea break on Day 2, losing Rohit Sharma (3) and KL Rahul (24). However, the pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli batted brilliantly in the final session to take the visitors to 148/2 after 40 overs.