Test Cricket Prediction and Discussion Thread [self - mod]

[JohnBitCo]

^^ @Royse777 I told you so... Although it was bumpy ride and both teams gave it all. On 4th day I thought I was going to lose but damn Indian team pulled it off.

The experts here - what do you think of me and my relationship in India tour of Australia LOL

Not an expert 

Sydney is batting track so I am expecting draw there and the last game at Gabba should go in favor of Australia as this is their stronghold.

Why does Australia continue to pin it's hopes on players like David Warner, out for a duck (or close to it) then he's hurt his arm/shoulder fielding a mediocre slow ball.

I picked up odds of ~3.4:1 for the third test ending in a draw.

Because their openers were struggling and they had to drop Burns from the team, Wade did okay as opener but he's also left arm batsman similar to David Warner so they moved him to down the order as Warner can't bat at middle order. Warner was their best option and solid opener when playing in Australia, that's why he was preferred although he was not 100% for the game, he was slow on the field too due to injury.

--snip--

They must be beating the shit out of Paine in the dressing room and rightly so..

Well a great performance by India today but I am sad about Jadeja. If Jadeja would have been fit India definitely would have looked for a win today. It was the fear of exposing the tail that stopped them to a draw because I think the number of runs Vihari and Ashwin did not run was enough to narrow down the gap to 40-50 runs. But Pant has muted his critics for quite some time and he definitely will be very much in the playing XI unless he isn't fit. But fitness is becoming a pretty big issue now. Jadeja is a pretty important trump card for India, especially with his bat. If India could still win the next match with more than half a dozen major players injured this series would be the ever best performance by India in Australia. Moreover, that tag of over-dependence on Kohli is also something India would get rid off.

I still do not know what went wrong in the last test but I was expecting a win when Panth was on the field. I thought that if he could have stayed a little longer, India could have win the match. I also did not expect a lot from the tail enders as Jadeja was not playing. Anyways next match is crucial now for both the teams.

Many people were predicting a loss for the Indians but i always thought that Indians could bat well in the last innings and they did it so. Rishabh Pant 97 runs (he missed his century) and Cheteshwar Pujara 77 runs saved the game for indians and they managed a draw in the end.

[onrise]

I will be surprised if India is able to pull a draw in the next match and if India wins or draws the match then Ajinkya Rahane should be the full time captain in Test matches.

There won't be much surprise if they manage to do that. Apart from the first test, the Indian team has performed exceptionally well in this series. A win in the last match would be the perfect ending to this tour. And Ajinkya Rahane should get full marks for his captaincy. He played a large part in winning the second test as well as in drawing the third. Kohli's position is under real threat.

My only concern is that from 3rd test we will miss 3 players which are Bumrah, Jadeja and Vihari. So now replacing them itself will not be easy because there are other players who are injured and already out. So, it will be new bunch of players making their way and playing in OZ under pressure will not be easy. So, OZ might just have an upper hand because of injured Indian players.

[teosanru]

~snip~

Speaking of fitness, Bumrah might miss the Brisbane test due to abdominal strain. Team management don't want to risk him as England tour is coming up. Jadeja already ruled out of Brisbane test, including first 2 test against England.

Next team selection is going to be very easy.. Ravi Shastri and Rahane might tell " You all are playing" that's it.  

That's my team for last game.

Rohit
Gill
Pujara
Rahane
Mayank (He should bat at number 5 as he's not in good touch)
Pant (He should do the WK because of team balance)
Ashwin
Shardul Thakur ( Ashwin and Shardul can make up for another batsmen as both know thing or two about batting)
Saini
Siraj
Natarajan (Debut)

Going with 5 bowler combination because Ashwin need some rest as well for England's series. Jadeja is already out so you don't want to exhaust another key bowler.

** In case Pant is not fit to keep then Saha should get in the team as WK, Pant would play as specialist batsman and no debut for Natarajan.


If by any chance India facing more injuries then they should borrow Marnus and Strac from the Aussie.

Hahah that's true I think it would be a difficult task for India to win the last match considering that there aren't very big names in the squad. Especially Bumrah is a big anchor in the bowling lineup he can take quick wickets for you whenever you need. There is a huge lot of fans who want to see Natrajan personally i am not a big fan of him in test format. I think he is more of a short format bowler because his quality is variation. Test cricket is better for bowlers having consistency in their bowling. But let's see if he can perform. With Sharadul and Ashwin team looks pretty good. But I am surely missing the A-team players: no Virat, no Bumrah, no Jadeja, No Vihari, No Umesh, No Shami.

[Indymoney]

~snip~

Speaking of fitness, Bumrah might miss the Brisbane test due to abdominal strain. Team management don't want to risk him as England tour is coming up. Jadeja already ruled out of Brisbane test, including first 2 test against England.

Next team selection is going to be very easy.. Ravi Shastri and Rahane might tell " You all are playing" that's it.  

That's my team for last game.

Rohit
Gill
Pujara
Rahane
Mayank (He should bat at number 5 as he's not in good touch)
Pant (He should do the WK because of team balance)
Ashwin
Shardul Thakur ( Ashwin and Shardul can make up for another batsmen as both know thing or two about batting)
Saini
Siraj
Natarajan (Debut)

Going with 5 bowler combination because Ashwin need some rest as well for England's series. Jadeja is already out so you don't want to exhaust another key bowler.

** In case Pant is not fit to keep then Saha should get in the team as WK, Pant would play as specialist batsman and no debut for Natarajan.


If by any chance India facing more injuries then they should borrow Marnus and Strac from the Aussie.

Hahah that's true I think it would be a difficult task for India to win the last match considering that there aren't very big names in the squad. Especially Bumrah is a big anchor in the bowling lineup he can take quick wickets for you whenever you need. There is a huge lot of fans who want to see Natrajan personally i am not a big fan of him in test format. I think he is more of a short format bowler because his quality is variation. Test cricket is better for bowlers having consistency in their bowling. But let's see if he can perform. With Sharadul and Ashwin team looks pretty good. But I am surely missing the A-team players: no Virat, no Bumrah, no Jadeja, No Vihari, No Umesh, No Shami.

For me current Indian team is weatiest because too many injuries hurting them very badly but still they manage to draw a test which is really equal to a win but still its draw now for next match they have some serious troubles but still some good and emerging players hopefully they can bring some good change on these pitches for India which is already good on this despite many predictions about whitewash and badly lost.

[JSRAW]

^^^ I would really love to see Natarajan make his debut, but then it depends on Damaadji. If he prefers Kuldeep Yadav for the final test, then Natarajan may need to wait some more time for his test debut. All that said, I have a feeling that India needs a left-arm pacer right now. It will add more variety to their pace attack, which is looking quite homogenous nowadays.

If Ashwin is fit to play then including Kuldeep doesn't make much sense on fast-bouncy track. Shashtri is nutjob but i guess he understand this clearly. They must be brainstorming on Saha's role though. 

~snip~
Mayank (He should bat at number 5 as he's not in good touch)

Too much of injuries in very short time period, don't know how many of them will return to their dressing room again because we had seen lots of stories in cricket history that once injured then they never got room in the playing XI.  Bowling is the key of winning a test match so they can't afford to lose any more bowlers and it should be another lucky opportunity for Natrajan.

Mayank is also injured during net session.. they are waiting for his scan. Indian squad turning into meme now.

~snip~

Hahah that's true I think it would be a difficult task for India to win the last match considering that there aren't very big names in the squad. Especially Bumrah is a big anchor in the bowling lineup he can take quick wickets for you whenever you need. There is a huge lot of fans who want to see Natrajan personally i am not a big fan of him in test format. I think he is more of a short format bowler because his quality is variation. Test cricket is better for bowlers having consistency in their bowling. But let's see if he can perform. With Sharadul and Ashwin team looks pretty good. But I am surely missing the A-team players: no Virat, no Bumrah, no Jadeja, No Vihari, No Umesh, No Shami.

Unfortunately team running out of reserves. Gill, KL Rahul, Siraj, Saini, Shardul, Natarajan, kuldeep, Tyagi,Saha all were reserved players. 3 of them (Gill,Siraj,Saini) already made their debut in the last 2 games . KL Rahul is already ruled out due to injury so they are left with Shardul, Natarajan, Tyagi (Fast bowlers) Kuldeep (Spinner) and only one batsman Shaw.

[teosanru]

~snip~

Hahah that's true I think it would be a difficult task for India to win the last match considering that there aren't very big names in the squad. Especially Bumrah is a big anchor in the bowling lineup he can take quick wickets for you whenever you need. There is a huge lot of fans who want to see Natrajan personally i am not a big fan of him in test format. I think he is more of a short format bowler because his quality is variation. Test cricket is better for bowlers having consistency in their bowling. But let's see if he can perform. With Sharadul and Ashwin team looks pretty good. But I am surely missing the A-team players: no Virat, no Bumrah, no Jadeja, No Vihari, No Umesh, No Shami.

Unfortunately team running out of reserves. Gill, KL Rahul, Siraj, Saini, Shardul, Natarajan, kuldeep, Tyagi,Saha all were reserved players. 3 of them (Gill,Siraj,Saini) already made their debut in the last 2 games . KL Rahul is already ruled out due to injury so they are left with Shardul, Natarajan, Tyagi (Fast bowlers) Kuldeep (Spinner) and only one batsman Shaw.

Haha After Mayank's Injury there are technically just Pujara, Ashwin and Rahane  left in the team who would have been part of the A team if everyone was fit rest of all of them are reserves and all the time we were cursing how fiercly competitive a place in the team is but now this same thing is helping India as we hav so much of backups. BCCI's decisions of sending more than 30 players on the tour was such an intelligent decision. Otherwise we would have faced the bio-bubble problem with these player. Quite an far sighted decision.

[vella85]

Well I was wrong with saying that there would be a result in the third test match. All credit goes to India for being able to survive 4 sessions against a strong bowling attack and also the fact that the test match was played in Australia just shows how far this Indian team has come. I really think that the test series win in Australia a few years ago has now made them a lot stronger as a team because if this was back before that test series win India would lose the match more times then not so this was great to see from the Indian team. This now sets up for an exciting fourth test however as I have said in previous posts Australia have the best record when playing in Brisbane as they have not lost a test match there in years. THe main thing going for India is that they have all the momentum right now but the injuries are a concern for them.

[eaLiTy]

There is a huge lot of fans who want to see Natrajan personally i am not a big fan of him in test format. I think he is more of a short format bowler because his quality is variation. Test cricket is better for bowlers having consistency in their bowling. But let's see if he can perform. With Sharadul and Ashwin team looks pretty good. But I am surely missing the A-team players: no Virat, no Bumrah, no Jadeja, No Vihari, No Umesh, No Shami.

If you remember Jasprit Bumrah had the same tag, it took a while and some injuries in the squad for him to get a chance in the team and everyone was critical that Jasprit Bumrah would fail in the Test format as he is just a short format bowler and now everyone is praising as he is the best bowler in the world across all formats. What i like about Natarajan is his control over his line and length and that is more than enough to be successful in any format.

Mayank is also injured during net session.. they are waiting for his scan. Indian squad turning into meme now.

Not sure what is going on, Ashwin is injured, literally everyone in the team has some sort of injury .

[7788bitcoin]

Unfortunately team running out of reserves. Gill, KL Rahul, Siraj, Saini, Shardul, Natarajan, kuldeep, Tyagi,Saha all were reserved players. 3 of them (Gill,Siraj,Saini) already made their debut in the last 2 games . KL Rahul is already ruled out due to injury so they are left with Shardul, Natarajan, Tyagi (Fast bowlers) Kuldeep (Spinner) and only one batsman Shaw.

They should hire freelancers and protect the rest of the players so that they could come out and play the final match  . The series had everything, a humiliating score for India in double digits and then loosing their aggressive captain and then coming from behind and winning and in the mean time loosing players due to injury and then drawing a match which everyone though was impossible with injured players in the crease in Ashwin and Vihari.

The only option for the coaching staff and captain is to ask the remaining members whether they are fit enough to play on the day of the match and India should have sent more reserves. 

[Sithara007]

^^^ I would really love to see Natarajan make his debut, but then it depends on Damaadji. If he prefers Kuldeep Yadav for the final test, then Natarajan may need to wait some more time for his test debut. All that said, I have a feeling that India needs a left-arm pacer right now. It will add more variety to their pace attack, which is looking quite homogenous nowadays.

If Ashwin is fit to play then including Kuldeep doesn't make much sense on fast-bouncy track. Shashtri is nutjob but i guess he understand this clearly. They must be brainstorming on Saha's role though.

Check this:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-australia/india-vs-australia-held-back-in-oz-for-nets-washington-sundar-may-play-gabba-test-jasprit-bumrah-out/articleshow/80230619.cms

TOI is saying that Washington Sundar may make his debut. Officially he is not a part of the squad, but was asked to stay back in Australia after the ODI/T20I series.  And there is still no confirmation regarding Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin. As per the media, they are being considered as 50/50 probabilities. I don't think that including two spinners (Ashwin and Sundar) is a good idea. I would have rather included Natarajan.

The playing eleven, for now, is expected to be on the following lines: Shubhman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (WK), Mayank Agarwal / Prithvi Shaw, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

[JSRAW]

Unfortunately team running out of reserves. Gill, KL Rahul, Siraj, Saini, Shardul, Natarajan, kuldeep, Tyagi,Saha all were reserved players. 3 of them (Gill,Siraj,Saini) already made their debut in the last 2 games . KL Rahul is already ruled out due to injury so they are left with Shardul, Natarajan, Tyagi (Fast bowlers) Kuldeep (Spinner) and only one batsman Shaw.

Haha After Mayank's Injury there are technically just Pujara, Ashwin and Rahane  left in the team who would have been part of the A team if everyone was fit rest of all of them are reserves and all the time we were cursing how fiercly competitive a place in the team is but now this same thing is helping India as we hav so much of backups. BCCI's decisions of sending more than 30 players on the tour was such an intelligent decision. Otherwise we would have faced the bio-bubble problem with these player. Quite an far sighted decision.

Due to covid CA refused to provide net bowlers to Indian team, which was right call from the Aussie side in tough time. It forced BCCI to bring enough players and Blame the IPL for intensive workload/injuries but at the same time thanks the IPL for enough warm up as well, some short of practice for players, especially new guys ... Tour could have been cancelled if we had 18 Men squad.

Overall , i think departure of Kohli turned out to be blessing in disguise. Every player taking responsibility and showing character now. I hope they keep up the same mindset when he returns, may be Kohli should think about it and give players some space and stop putting pressure on them unnecessary.

~snip~

They should hire freelancers and protect the rest of the players so that they could come out and play the final match  .

Lol
Only Australian players are eligible or they should try some from the BBL, may be bring Rashid Khan. 

^^^ I would really love to see Natarajan make his debut, but then it depends on Damaadji. If he prefers Kuldeep Yadav for the final test, then Natarajan may need to wait some more time for his test debut. All that said, I have a feeling that India needs a left-arm pacer right now. It will add more variety to their pace attack, which is looking quite homogenous nowadays.

If Ashwin is fit to play then including Kuldeep doesn't make much sense on fast-bouncy track. Shashtri is nutjob but i guess he understand this clearly. They must be brainstorming on Saha's role though.

Check this:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-australia/india-vs-australia-held-back-in-oz-for-nets-washington-sundar-may-play-gabba-test-jasprit-bumrah-out/articleshow/80230619.cms

TOI is saying that Washington Sundar may make his debut. Officially he is not a part of the squad, but was asked to stay back in Australia after the ODI/T20I series.  And there is still no confirmation regarding Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin. As per the media, they are being considered as 50/50 probabilities. I don't think that including two spinners (Ashwin and Sundar) is a good idea. I would have rather included Natarajan.

The playing eleven, for now, is expected to be on the following lines: Shubhman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (WK), Mayank Agarwal / Prithvi Shaw, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

They didn't include him in the squad yet so i am not sure if we should believe the unnamed source or not. No idea about Sundar's first class career but this doesn't look that bad. With this move Indian tail look okay as Ashwin,Sundar and Shardul can bat as well.

[bryant.coleman]

They didn't include him in the squad yet so i am not sure if we should believe the unnamed source or not. No idea about Sundar's first class career but this doesn't look that bad. With this move Indian tail look okay as Ashwin,Sundar and Shardul can bat as well.

Sundar can bat, but he is not as good as Jadeja in the batting department. So essentially India is going with two spinners for the fourth test match, which I believe is a bad idea. They could have used the slot to include another pacer (probably Natarajan). The Indian team needs to be careful here. If they win one more match, then they can create history in Australia.

[JSRAW]

They didn't include him in the squad yet so i am not sure if we should believe the unnamed source or not. No idea about Sundar's first class career but this doesn't look that bad. With this move Indian tail look okay as Ashwin,Sundar and Shardul can bat as well.

Sundar can bat, but he is not as good as Jadeja in the batting department. So essentially India is going with two spinners for the fourth test match, which I believe is a bad idea. They could have used the slot to include another pacer (probably Natarajan). The Indian team needs to be careful here. If they win one more match, then they can create history in Australia.

That i agree, even draw would be great, with draw they would retain Border Gavaskar trophy again. No one gave them much chance after 36 all out drama. However chances are very slim at Gabba but there is some hope from this Indian team after their brave performance.

@Vishnu.Reang Win the toss and bat first, anyone heard anything on weather forecast?

[Vishnu.Reang]

@Vishnu.Reang Win the toss and bat first, anyone heard anything on weather forecast?

As per the weather prediction, first day will be largely sunny and clear. But for the remaining 4 days, heavy rains are predicted. Expect a loss of at least 150-200 overs as a result of rain. That means unless there is a batting collapse effecting one of the sides, the chance of getting a result from the fourth match is very minimal. BTW, January is the wettest month of the year, in Brisbane and the surrounding areas. CA scheduled the match there, only due to the ongoing pandemic.

[teosanru]

There is a huge lot of fans who want to see Natrajan personally i am not a big fan of him in test format. I think he is more of a short format bowler because his quality is variation. Test cricket is better for bowlers having consistency in their bowling. But let's see if he can perform. With Sharadul and Ashwin team looks pretty good. But I am surely missing the A-team players: no Virat, no Bumrah, no Jadeja, No Vihari, No Umesh, No Shami.

If you remember Jasprit Bumrah had the same tag, it took a while and some injuries in the squad for him to get a chance in the team and everyone was critical that Jasprit Bumrah would fail in the Test format as he is just a short format bowler and now everyone is praising as he is the best bowler in the world across all formats. What i like about Natarajan is his control over his line and length and that is more than enough to be successful in any format.

Mayank is also injured during net session.. they are waiting for his scan. Indian squad turning into meme now.

Not sure what is going on, Ashwin is injured, literally everyone is the team has some sort of injury .

Yes I agree with you and I think this is the sole reason why even the selectors have selected him in the team. Obviously his bowling is considered pretty similar to that of Bumrah but I feel Bumrah's short run up and slinging action was the reason for his success too nevertheless test cricket is not like T20 cricket it always rewards the bowler who is best with his line and length.

Unfortunately team running out of reserves. Gill, KL Rahul, Siraj, Saini, Shardul, Natarajan, kuldeep, Tyagi,Saha all were reserved players. 3 of them (Gill,Siraj,Saini) already made their debut in the last 2 games . KL Rahul is already ruled out due to injury so they are left with Shardul, Natarajan, Tyagi (Fast bowlers) Kuldeep (Spinner) and only one batsman Shaw.

Haha After Mayank's Injury there are technically just Pujara, Ashwin and Rahane  left in the team who would have been part of the A team if everyone was fit rest of all of them are reserves and all the time we were cursing how fiercly competitive a place in the team is but now this same thing is helping India as we hav so much of backups. BCCI's decisions of sending more than 30 players on the tour was such an intelligent decision. Otherwise we would have faced the bio-bubble problem with these player. Quite an far sighted decision.

Due to covid CA refused to provide net bowlers to Indian team, which was right call from the Aussie side in tough time. It forced BCCI to bring enough players and Blame the IPL for intensive workload/injuries but at the same time thanks the IPL for enough warm up as well, some short of practice for players, especially new guys ... Tour could have been cancelled if we had 18 Men squad.

Overall , i think departure of Kohli turned out to be blessing in disguise. Every player taking responsibility and showing character now. I hope they keep up the same mindset when he returns, may be Kohli should think about it and give players some space and stop putting pressure on them unnecessary.

~snip~

They should hire freelancers and protect the rest of the players so that they could come out and play the final match  .

Lol
Only Australian players are eligible or they should try some from the BBL, may be bring Rashid Khan. 

^^^ I would really love to see Natarajan make his debut, but then it depends on Damaadji. If he prefers Kuldeep Yadav for the final test, then Natarajan may need to wait some more time for his test debut. All that said, I have a feeling that India needs a left-arm pacer right now. It will add more variety to their pace attack, which is looking quite homogenous nowadays.

If Ashwin is fit to play then including Kuldeep doesn't make much sense on fast-bouncy track. Shashtri is nutjob but i guess he understand this clearly. They must be brainstorming on Saha's role though.

Check this:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/cricket/india-in-australia/india-vs-australia-held-back-in-oz-for-nets-washington-sundar-may-play-gabba-test-jasprit-bumrah-out/articleshow/80230619.cms

TOI is saying that Washington Sundar may make his debut. Officially he is not a part of the squad, but was asked to stay back in Australia after the ODI/T20I series.  And there is still no confirmation regarding Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin. As per the media, they are being considered as 50/50 probabilities. I don't think that including two spinners (Ashwin and Sundar) is a good idea. I would have rather included Natarajan.

The playing eleven, for now, is expected to be on the following lines: Shubhman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (WK), Mayank Agarwal / Prithvi Shaw, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

They didn't include him in the squad yet so i am not sure if we should believe the unnamed source or not. No idea about Sundar's first class career but this doesn't look that bad. With this move Indian tail look okay as Ashwin,Sundar and Shardul can bat as well.

I don't think IPL is the reason for these injuries. If you see closely most of the injuries were actually on the spot injuries rather than any internal injury especially for the batsmen. Cricketers have been in a much more intense schedule before this. So IPL isn't really the reason for this.

[mersal]

@Vishnu.Reang Win the toss and bat first, anyone heard anything on weather forecast?

As per the weather prediction, first day will be largely sunny and clear. But for the remaining 4 days, heavy rains are predicted. Expect a loss of at least 150-200 overs as a result of rain. That means unless there is a batting collapse effecting one of the sides, the chance of getting a result from the fourth match is very minimal. BTW, January is the wettest month of the year, in Brisbane and the surrounding areas. CA scheduled the match there, only due to the ongoing pandemic.

Hope this will be beneficial for the team India and save them from the loss because they already lost too many key players so they are in need some kind of luck to draw this serious so they won't get much criticism from Indian fans.

[eaLiTy]

~
Yes I agree with you and I think this is the sole reason why even the selectors have selected him in the team. Obviously his bowling is considered pretty similar to that of Bumrah but I feel Bumrah's short run up and slinging action was the reason for his success too nevertheless test cricket is not like T20 cricket it always rewards the bowler who is best with his line and length.

The success of Jasprit Bumrah is his line and length and his control and Natarajan showed his control with his line and length in the T20 format and until you give the bowlers a chance to perform in the longer format you never know whether he will be successful. The difference between Test and the rest of the format is the endurance and stamina in the longer format and you need a smart captain to understand the weakness of a bowler and never burn them out.
Not sure about the Indian line up, reports are coming out that Cheteshwar Pujara injured his hand during net session and considering this to be a fast bowling friendly wicket it is going to be a difficult task for India.

[Sithara007]

Hope this will be beneficial for the team India and save them from the loss because they already lost too many key players so they are in need some kind of luck to draw this serious so they won't get much criticism from Indian fans.

Well.. a draw won't be a bad outcome for team India. Before the test series started, a lot of people were writing them off. Michael Vaughan even predicted that Australia would whitewash them 4-0. And they started very badly, getting blasted out for just 36 runs in the first match. But then, the recovery was unexpected. A draw in the final match would be the perfect ending for India.

[JSRAW]

@Vishnu.Reang Win the toss and bat first, anyone heard anything on weather forecast?

As per the weather prediction, first day will be largely sunny and clear. But for the remaining 4 days, heavy rains are predicted. Expect a loss of at least 150-200 overs as a result of rain. That means unless there is a batting collapse effecting one of the sides, the chance of getting a result from the fourth match is very minimal. BTW, January is the wettest month of the year, in Brisbane and the surrounding areas. CA scheduled the match there, only due to the ongoing pandemic.

Normally they start every tour from there because every visiting team struggle there. Glad that BCCI dozed the bullet and playing last game at the Gabba 

-------------
No update on Indian squad, only speculation. On the other hand Will Pucovski is also injured and Marcus Harris is going to replace him as opener along with Warner.

[bryant.coleman]

No update on Indian squad, only speculation. On the other hand Will Pucovski is also injured and Marcus Harris is going to replace him as opener along with Warner.

Pucovski made one good contribution, and now he is gone too. Marcus Harris was dropped because of poor form, and he performed poorly during the warmup matches as well. But I guess Australia is running out of options now. Anyway, irrespective of the outcome of the 4th match, this series will put them in a very difficult position as far as the World Test Championship is concerned.