The Second Test at Gabba, which Australia won by 4 wickets, was a repeat of India’s another poor performance at overseas. Going into the day four of the match. India were 71/1 in their second innings but collapsed to 89/5 in about an hour or so. Their main batsmen were gone and the match was lost there only.
But now, the Border-Gavaskar bandwagon moves to the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne. Ahead of this match, all eyes will be on the debutant Joe Burns and Ryan Harris, who returns after missing the Gabba Test due to injury. For India, this will be the last chance for Rohit Sharma to put his three-time experience of touring Australia in this all important clash. Let us take a look at some of the things that need to be taken into consideration for this Test that begins day after tomorrow.
Stat Attack- Australia vs India: Head-to-Head at Melbourne
Both these teams have clashed 11 times at Melbourne, out of which Australia have won 8 times and India has been able to register a win only 2 times. One match resulted in a draw.
Team Guide: Australia
Australia are formidable and will look to carry on from their left at Gabba. Steven Smith lead from the front with the bat in his first Test as a captain for Australia and also marshalled his troops well. He must be itching to carry on the great work ahead. Chris Rogers has struck form at the right time. His innings of 55 in the second innings at Gabba was sheer class. David Warner, who injured his thumb during the second innings at Gabba only, has been declared fit for Melbourne Test. Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh, who also had injury scare at the practice session for this Boxing Day Test, have also been passed fit. Watson’s bowling workload will be a bit more in this Test as Mitchell Marsh was ruled out due to a hamstring injury. Joe Burns (in pic), the replacement of Mitchell Marsh, is all set to make his Test debut in front of the 90,000 people. High pressure situation, let us see whether he lives up to the expectations or not.
Image Courtesy: dailytelegraph
In Bowling, Ryan Harris, who missed the Gabba Test, will to return to the side at the expense of Mitchell Starc, who injured himself while batting at the practice session. Josh Hazlewood, who picked up a 5-fer in his debut at Gabba, will again look to provide crucial breakthroughs alongwith the vicious Mitchell Johnson. Offie Nathan Lyon, who has taken 17 wickets in two matches till now, will look to add more to his wicket-column. In last year’s Boxing Day Test against England at Melbourne, Lyon took 5 wickets to guide his team to victory. So clearly, Lyon has inspiration in front of him now.
Confirmed Playing XI:
Chris Rogers, David Warner, Shane Watson, Steven Smith, Shaun Marsh, Joe Burns, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon
Team Guide: India
Irrespective of Dhoni saying that India’s new vintage is nearly ready, it will be fair to say that Indian team is very much short on confidence. The actual problem is that the team is failing to cash in on the crucial moments. They are not able to win the big moments and that is the reason why they are losing constantly at overseas. In both batting and bowling, consistency factor is lacking. Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have shown great temperament, but they really need to do it on regular basis if India are to win overseas ( A start from Melbourne would be good). Cheteshwar Pujara hasn’t scored a hundred in his last 19 innings and the number of good contributions is also lacking from his scores. Even Dhawan, apart from his 81-run knock in the second innings of the Gabba Test hasn’t looked threatening at all. Both Pujara and Dhawan really need to support Vijay, Kohli and Rahane to help India win the crucial moments of the match.
Currently, the most debatable thing in this line-up is Rohit Sharma’s performance at number six. He is the only batsman in the top-six who is yet to register a 50+ score in this series. No doubt he has got starts, but has failed to convert them into big ones. This is Rohit’s (in pic) third tour to Australia and second with the Test team.
Image Courtesy: ndtv
For the first time, he didn’t play any Test but given the fact that if a player gets to tour Australia three times during his career (even if he has played only ODIs), he should and must get acclimatized to the conditions there. There is no chance that Rohit will get dropped for this Test but if he fails to put in his three-time experience of touring Australia in this Test, without any doubts, he should and must be dropped for the fourth and final Test at Sydney.
In Bowling, there is a good news that Bhuvneshwar Kumar is likely to spearhead the attack after missing the first two Tests due to an ankle injury. He is expected to take the place of the highly inconsistent Varun Aaron. Ishant Sharma, who took 6 wickets at Gabba will look to continue his good form. Dhoni will also like more effort from Umesh Yadav and R Ashwin if India really are to keep the Border-Gavaskar Trophy alive going into the last Test at Sydney.
Possible Playing XI:
Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav
Date: December 26th, 2014
Time 05:00 (IST)
Image Courtesy: bcci