Australia will lock horns against India in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar series at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground from Thursday onwards. The series is tied at 1-1 and both teams are well in the race to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
India has happy memories of playing at the MCG on their last two tours as they have claimed positive results. But India’s under-confident batting line-up will surely have their work cut out in the Boxing-Day Test against Australia’s formidable bowling unit. India’s bowling battery will also need to figure out a plan on how to get rid of Travis Head, who has been a thorn in visitors’ flesh.
On the other hand, Australia has ticked almost all the right boxes but rain came between them and a win at the Gabba.
Stats Preview:
Mohammed Siraj needs seven wickets to complete 100 wickets in Test format.
Nathan Lyon needs five fours to complete 200 boundaries in the red-ball version.
Mitchell Starc needs three sixes to complete 50 maximums in the multi-day format.
India’s gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah needs six wickets to complete 200 wickets in Test cricket. Bumrah will become the sixth Indian fast bowler after Kapil Dev, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath, and Mohammed Shami to complete 200 scalps in the red-ball version.
Australia’s talisman batter Steve Smith needs 191 runs to reach the 10000-run mark in Test format. Smith will become the fourth Australian batter after Alan Border, Steve Waugh, and Ricky Ponting to achieve the feat.
India Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Akash Deep, Tanush Kotian, Dhruv Jurel, Washington Sundar, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana
Australia Squad: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland, Beau Webster, Sean Abbott, Josh Inglis, Jhye Richardson.
