Australia will take up India in the final Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, which will start on Fifteenth of January at The Gabba in Brisbane.
India’s amazing draw at the Sydney Cricket Ground leaves the series tied at 1-1 ahead of the 4th and final Test of a superb and reasonable tour. India batted out 131 overs in the fourth innings in the middle an injury crisis and finished on 334/5 while chasing a mammoth total of 407.
Support from the Man of the Match Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Will Pucovski, and Cameron Green allowed Australia to post totals of 300 plus in both their innings. India replied strongly in their second innings with the bat later getting bundled out for 244 in the first innings.
Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Rishabh Pant scored the great majority of the runs for India. Later, Hanuma Vihari and Ravichandran Ashwin formed a great partnership and battled huge pain to play out 262 balls, scoring 62 runs.
With the series in balance, Australia has almost a full squad in front of the fourth Test. The same can’t be said about that Team India, who has been harass by injuries. Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja have been ruled out of the fourth Test. Ravichandran Ashwin, Hanuma Vihari, and Mayank Agarwal might not highlight against the Aussies as well.
However, despite the injuries to Team India, we can hope a close competition in this series decider given the fight that we saw from the side in the third Test.
Match details
Date: January 15- 19, 2021 (Friday- Tuesday)
Time: 05:30 AM (IST), 00:00 AM (GMT), 10:00 AM (Local)
Venue: The Gabba, Brisbane
Weather prediction
This match could have a lot of rain break with showers projected for Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. The average temperature should be at around 30°C.
Pitch inform
The Gabba is another wicket that could be batsman-friendly but also has mattered in it for the bowlers. While the raters might have to slog tougher to extract something of the wicket, the spinners can get some extra bounce in Bronze.
Predicted XIs Australia Steve Smith returned to form in a certain way in the third Test.
Steve Smith returned to form in some style in the third Test.
Australia is expected to go with the same playing XI from the third Test for this game and Matthew Wade is possible to be given another chance in the middle-order.
Expected XI: Will Pucovski, David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Matthew Wade, Cameron Green, Tim Paine(C/WK), Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood
India is expected to make a host of strained modification to their lineup after suffering injury trouble. It’s a toss-up between Shardul Thakur and T Natarajan when it comes to Jasprit Bumrah’s replaced in the aspect. Washington Sundar or Kuldeep Yadav are the options available to replace Jadeja.
Wriddhiman Saha is probably to replacing with Vihari if he fails the fitness test while Ashwin could be replaced by any of the above-mentioned bench options if he isn’t healthy.
Expected XI: Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant(WK), Hanuma Vihari/Wriddhiman Saha, Washington Sundar/Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur/Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur/T Natarajan, Mohammed Siraj, and Navdeep Saini.
Match forecast
Despite the tremendous grit and character that India showed while drawing the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) Test, Australia will head into the final game of the series as the favourites. Their tremendous record at the Gabba, aided by injuries to several of India’s match-winners makes them likely to win.
Prediction: Australia to win
TV Channel and live streaming details
TV: Sony Sports Network
Live Streaming On: Sony Liv