India vs. Australia: Fourth Test Preview

Australia will have their sights set on securing an unlikely 2-2 series draw when they face India at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the final Border-Gavaskar Test on Thursday after a claiming a convincing, nine-wicket win in Indore last week.

There are reports that a crowd in excess of 100,000 could be on hand for the opening day of play – a potential Test match record.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are expected to be in attendance for Day 1.

The Australians overcame the absences of skipper Pat Cummins and opener David Warner as well as a poorly-rated pitch in Indore to punch their ticket to the World Test Championship Final at Kennington’s The Oval in June.

It was just their second Test win on Indian soil since 2004.

Nathan Lyon was awarded Player of Match honours for his heroic 8-for-64 figures in a match-defining third innings to go along with first innings figures of 3-for-35.

Matthew Kuhnemann also picked up the first five-wicket haul of his Test career finishing with figures of 5-of-16 to help Australia restrict India to a first innings total of 109.

Whilst India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after their victory in Delhi, Australia still have the ability to draw the series and finish their tour on a high ahead of their journey to England midway through the year.

Stand-in skipper Steve Smith will again lead the Australians in Ahmedabad with Cummins opting to remain in Australia due to personal reasons.

Australia are not expected to make any changes to the XI that came out victors in Indore.

Travis Head and Usman Khawaja will open the batting with Marnus Labuschagne, Smith, and Peter Handscomb making up the middle order.

Allrounder Cameron Green and wicketkeeper Alex Carey will be at six and seven with Mitchell Starc and spin trio Lyon, Kuhnemann, and Todd Murphy rounding things out.

India, meanwhile, are contemplating a pair of changes with Mohammed Shami expected to come in for Mohammed Siraj after sitting out the Indore Test.

Skipper Rohit Sharma will open alongside Shubman Gill – who came into the side as K.L. Rahul’s replacement in Indore – with Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas Iyer in the middle order.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel – who has played a crucial role as a lower order batter this series – head the tail along with quicks Shami and Umesh Yadav.

There are whispers that India could hand a Test debut to white-ball wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan in place of K.S. Bharat who has had his struggles with the bat and behind the stumps in his debut series.

A win would secure India’s spot in the World Test Championship Final versus Australia later this year.

India enter the clash as favourites once more with the bookmakers projecting the hosts to claim a 3-1 series victory and a subsequent World Test Championship Final berth.