Australia tour of India

4th Test Match: IND vs AUS

Preview

The fourth and final test match of the Border-Gavaskar Test series will take place on Thursday, 09th March at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad from 9:30 AM onwards. The Visitors won the Indore test comfortably by 9 wickets and reduced the trail to 1-2 in the series.

However, Hosts team India has retained the Border Gavaskar Trophy for the third time in a row by beating Australia in the second test. With the 6-wicket win at Delhi, but now Australia has a chance to win the last Test match and make the series 2-2. To win the series, Team India will have to win the fourth Test match to be held in Ahmedabad.

If Rohit-Sharma-led team India wins the fourth and last Test match against Australia, then it will create history by winning its 16th consecutive Test series at home. The world number two side in the test will also qualify for the final of the test championship final by making it 3-1.

For the fourth Test match against Australia, the opener Shubman Gill along with captain Rohit Sharma are likely to open for the side. KL Rahul who was left out in the third test match is likely to be rested for this match as well. Skipper of the side Rohit Sharma is the highest batter to score 207 runs in the current BGT series so far becoming the only batter to smash a hundred in the series. It is going to be a regular batting track for the fourth test match after three test matches ended within 3 days of each test match. It may be a ranker-turner.

The veteran batter Cheteshwar Pujara will continue to bat at number 3 in the fourth Test match against Australia, he was the lone warrior for the Hosts in the last match by playing a gutsy knock of 59 in the second innings. However, the 34-year-old star batter Virat Kohli has yet to score a fifty in this series so far. His highest score in the BGT test series is 44 so far.

The middle order batter Shreyas Iyer smashed a quick-fire 26 in the second innings of the third test match and he will be looking to add more runs under his belt for the fourth test match. The World's number one test all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has taken the most wickets in the ongoing BGT series with 21 wickets, he will strengthen the Hosts with the ball as well as the bat. He has scored 126 runs in the 3 test matches. 

Rohit Sharma can give a chance to wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan in place of KS Bharat in the playing XI of the fourth Test. Bharat has scored only 57 runs in the 3 matches with an average of 14.25. He is likely to be replaced by Kishan, who is considered very dangerous in batting for the fourth test match. The left-handed batter also smashed a double century in the ODIs against Bangladesh. He may bat in the 7th spot.

The left-handed all-rounder and Patel and World number one test bowler Ravichandran Ashwin both will continue the strength of the team India in the playing XI in the fourth Test against Australia. Both have contributed brilliantly so far, Axar with the bat has scored the second most 185 runs with an average of 92.50 whereas, Ashwin has taken 18 wickets in the 3 test matches and also smashed 79 runs with his bat. The deadly combo of Axar, Jadeja and Ashwin has already troubled the Aussies batters in the series and they will like to do the same in the do-or-die test match as well. Umesh and Siraj/Shami are likely to take responsibility in the pace department.

On the other hand, the Aussies have not done anything wrong in the last test match. From Khawaja, Head, Labuschagne to Lyon all contributed to the Visitors to lead them toward victory. Nathan Lyon scalped 11 wickets in the Indore test and his companion Kuhnemann claimed 5/16 in the first innings of the 3rd test match.

Both the spinners trapped Indian batters into their strength. It was a powerful show from Aussie opener Travis Head and the World Number one batter Marnus Labuschagne that helped the Visitors to beat the Hosts by 9 wickets in the third Test in Indore. Chasing 76 on Day 3, the Stand-in skipper Smith's side started on a dreadful note losing the left-handed opener Khawaja for 0 after facing two balls from Ashwin.

Batting first after winning the toss, IND's first innings was reduced to 109 runs. In response, AUS' first innings were reduced to 197 runs. The Hosts scored 163 runs in the second innings and set a target of 76 runs in front of Australia.

The regular skipper of the side Pat Cummins will not be able to join the team for the final BGT test match as well and guide his team to victory in the last match, 33-year-old Steve Smith will take charge of the Visitors for this match. Cummins was also not a part of the team in the Indore Test, which Australia won.

Both nations have played 105 Test matches with India winning 32 matches and the Aussies 44 in which one ended in a tie and 28 times both teams settled with a draw. India has won the last two Test series by 2-1 margins. India and Australia have played a total of 27 Test series against each other. Of these Men in Blue have won 10 times whereas Aussies have won 12 series, with 5 series ending in draws.

Match Details

Match: IND vs AUS, 4th Test Match, Australia tour of India 2023

Date: Thursday, 09 March - Monday, 13 March

Time: 09:30 AM

Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

Pitch & Weather Report

As we all have seen in the last three BGT tets matches, the match ended in just three days, so it is expected that something similar will be seen at this venue as well. Only Test matches were played between India and England on this pitch in Feb 2021, in which the dominance of spin bowlers was seen. The left-arm spinner Axar Patel was the star of the show in that series. He has a good record on this pitch, taking 20 wickets in the two Test matches he has played at this venue.

The pacers will get help from the new ball but as the pitch gets old the spin bowlers will be seen in action at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. Whichever team wins the toss will prefer to bat first as it will be difficult to bat here in the last innings. As of 2022, the venue has hosted 14 Tests, 27 ODIs, 6 T20I matches and 2 Indian T20 League matches including the finals of the 2022 edition for which it got the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest recorded match attendance at 101,566 fans.

The maximum temperature will remain at 34°C, with a low of 20°C with 28% humidity, and a slow wind speed of 11 Km/hr for the fourth Test between India and Australia on Mar 09-Mar 13. There is no rain expected for the course of this test match which will begin this Thursday and more than 1,10,000 spectators can enjoy the show in this stadium without any disturbance.

IND vs AUS Squads

IND: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (VC), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.

AUS: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (VC), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

IND vs AUS: Probable XIs

IND: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj

Match Prediction

India hasn’t lost a test series at home since 2012. Nothing is more difficult than playing against the Hosts at home. They are now the number-one team across all formats. In the last four Tests, they have had three victories over Australia.

The visitors will be high with confidence after beating India in the last test match. The Hosts have already had their hands on the BGT and now their ultimate aim will be to qualify for the Test Championship Final comfortably by making it 3-1.

Team India has 4 wins, and 1 draw in the last 5 tests played against Australia. The World Number two side team India hasn’t lost a Test at home for the last 2 years. It is going to be good between both sides but we say India to win this match and wrap up the series by 3-1.

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