Australia's tail wagged a little longer to reach 445 all out before a stunning opening spell by Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had India in early trouble at 22-3 in its reply at lunch on the third day of the third cricket test on Monday.
Starc took the wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill in his first two overs to set the tone, before Hazlewood captured the prize wicket of India superstar Virat Kohli just before a rain shower brought on an early lunch.
At lunch, KL Rahul was 13 not out and he will be joined by Rishabh Pant after the break.
Resuming at 405-7 earlier Monday, Australia's Alex Carey and Starc made some quickfire runs before Jasprit Bumrah (6-76) got his sixth wicket of the innings by removing Starc (18) caught behind to end the rally.
Nathan Lyon added two runs before he was bowled by Mohammed Siraj and then Carey holed-out for 70 off 88 balls — his ninth half century — to end the innings.
After removing Jaiswal (4) with the first ball of the innings in the second test at Adelaide, Starc needed just two balls at the Gabba to remove the young opener.
The first ball was swiped through gully for a boundary by the 22-year-old but the second he chipped a simple catch to Mitch Marsh at midwicket for a soft dismissal.
In his next over, Starc struck again with Marsh diving acrobatically to take a two-handed catch at gully to remove Shubman Gill (1) and India was 7-2.
Hazlewood, back in the team after a side strain ruled him out of last week’s second test, then rocked India further by teasing an edge from the veteran Kohli to have India three down as rain began to fall and prompted an early lunch.
On Sunday's Day 2, India’s seamers triggered another top order batting collapse for the hosts but a second successive century for Travis Head and a long overdue hundred for Steven Smith lifted Australia to 405-7 at the close.
Head made a characteristic sparkling 152, while Smith completed a much more circumspect 101 in a 241-run partnership which rallied the hosts after they had been at a precarious 75-3 after Bumrah had again tore through Australia's top-order on his way to a 12th five-wicket haul.
Rain prevented all but 13.2 overs on the opening day after India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl on a green tionged Gabba wicket.
India won the first test by 295 runs at Perth, while Australia came back to win the second day-night test in Adelaide by 10 wickets.