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There was an air of one-upmanship even when the final rights of the Indore Test were being read. Despite complaints about the changed ball, Ravichandran Ashwin stood atop his mark at the CK Nayudu end, from where he'd bowled unchanged through the morning even as Axar Patel limbered up hopefully. At the other end, Marnus Labuschagne re-marked his guard. With only two runs left to get, the No.1 Test batter skipped out to finish the game with an emphatic, statement-making stroke off the No.1 bowler. He was beaten by the dip and reprieved with the ball hitting his back leg. Two balls later, Labuschagne's attempts at an encore had something more of the desired effect and his celebratory roar was in keeping with the magnitude of what he and his team had achieved. It was 2-1 now, with a game to go.
Entering Ahmedabad, there is a similar sense of the scoreboard not reflecting how the two sets of players see themselves. Australia, their confident strut restored, are a team in the ascendant. India aren't downbeat but they are increasingly looking towards their batters, many of whom have had the onerous task of finding the right balance between attack and defence on surfaces that don't make the task easy. But there might be respite coming their way.
It would be tempting to place the Ahmedabad pitch on the centre stage. But that, like the pageantry involving the two Prime Ministers on Day 1 of this Test, would be distracting from the lead actors themselves who will square off with so much to play here. For starters, India do not want to leave their qualification for the World Test Championship final in New Zealand's hands. They also have a proud record of having won 15 consecutive home series to protect.
For the visitors, Indore was a big win, but it was also a rare one. While it may be 1-2 right now, it is also 2-12. That's the ledger in India for Australia since 2004. More broadly, Australian sides have struggled to win consecutive Tests away from home. This though is a different team, and back-to-back wins in Lahore and Galle are a testament to that claim. The next step is to do it in the same series for the first time since New Zealand, 2016. And there are ingredients falling into place. Their batting, save for a couple of hiccups, is clicking into gear slowly, and their spin attack has seldom looked as consistently threatening as it did at the Holkar Stadium.
Even so, Australia have had to come back from behind to get to a point where levelling this Test series is a big possibility. And they will know, in all honesty, that they could have even been 2-1 up at this point with a little luck. Having let India off the hook in Delhi, Steve Smith & Co. will be itching to end the series with a win, and show that they have become an even better team for the bruising experiences they have suffered on the road, with greater staying power and adaptability.
When: India vs Australia, 4th Test, March 9-13, 09:30 IST, 04:00 GMT
Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
What to expect: The best batting conditions of the series, at least to start off. Smith, however, predicted that spin would come into play but will do so belatedly. That should automatically increase the likelihood of this Test extending beyond three days. A return to more normal subcontinental conditions will see the toss assume greater significance than it has been in this series so far where teams losing the toss have gone on to win each time. Meanwhile, the players will be treated to sweltering summer conditions in Ahmedabad with mid-afternoon temperatures forecast to hit 37 degrees Celsius during the Test match.
Team News:
India
Rahul Dravid hinted that India will be happy to stick to their 3-2 combination of bowlers. If at all, the hosts might consider bringing back Mohammed Shami and rest Mohammed Siraj. Ishan Kishan was picked in this squad as a keeper-bat in the mould of Rishabh Pant and has had significant time batting in the nets. But Rohit and Dravid have insisted that they are happy with how Bharat has gone about his two roles in the series and are willing to give him the space to succeed.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami/Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav
Australia
After the troubles in the early part of the tour, the visitors have a clean bill of health to report and thus have no reason to change their winning combination from Indore. There might be more of a bowling load for the seamers in the first innings of the Test and thus Cameron Green is likely to bowl more than the two overs he did in Indore.
Probable XI:Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann
Did you know?
- In the two Tests played at Ahmedabad in 2021, spinners picked 48 wickets at 14.65 while the 11 wickets for pace came at 30.64 apiece.
- Since the start of 2021, Pujara averages 19.05 in first innings compared to 49.38 in the second.
- Combined figures of Ashwin & Jadeja read 8/189 in Indore - the worst in 11 home Tests for the pair against Australia. The only other time they failed to pick ten wickets between them was in the 2017 Dharamshala Test. There they managed combined figures of 8/164.
What they said:
"Honestly, when you win two games, if the people outside are feeling that we are overconfident, it's absolutely rubbish, because you want to do your best in all four games. You don't want to stop by winning just two games, it is as simple as that. Obviously, all these guys, when they talk about being overconfident and all that, especially the guys who are not part of the dressing room, they don't know what kind of talk happens in the dressing room. Ruthless is the word that comes to my mind. Not to give any inch to the opposition when they are playing, especially when they're touring abroad, and that is exactly what we have also experienced when we have toured outside. The opposition will never let you come into the game, never let you come into the series. And that is the mindset we have as well. We want to do our best in all the games. If it seems overconfident or anything like that to the outsiders, it doesn't really matter to us." - Rohit Sharma on Ravi Shastri's accusing the team of having been overconfident before the Indore Test.
"I probably can't see myself coming back really, if I'm being realistic. But we'll wait and see, take it day by day, four years is a long time. I'll enjoy this one, hopefully it's a great crowd and we can entertain them and ideally finish the series really well." - Steve Smith on this potentially being his last Test in India.
Squads:
India Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav
Australia Squad: Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann, Scott Boland, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson, Lance Morris
Entering Ahmedabad, there is a similar sense of the scoreboard not reflecting how the two sets of players see themselves. Australia, their confident strut restored, are a team in the ascendant. India aren't downbeat but they are increasingly looking towards their batters, many of whom have had the onerous task of finding the right balance between attack and defence on surfaces that don't make the task easy. But there might be respite coming their way.
It would be tempting to place the Ahmedabad pitch on the centre stage. But that, like the pageantry involving the two Prime Ministers on Day 1 of this Test, would be distracting from the lead actors themselves who will square off with so much to play here. For starters, India do not want to leave their qualification for the World Test Championship final in New Zealand's hands. They also have a proud record of having won 15 consecutive home series to protect.
For the visitors, Indore was a big win, but it was also a rare one. While it may be 1-2 right now, it is also 2-12. That's the ledger in India for Australia since 2004. More broadly, Australian sides have struggled to win consecutive Tests away from home. This though is a different team, and back-to-back wins in Lahore and Galle are a testament to that claim. The next step is to do it in the same series for the first time since New Zealand, 2016. And there are ingredients falling into place. Their batting, save for a couple of hiccups, is clicking into gear slowly, and their spin attack has seldom looked as consistently threatening as it did at the Holkar Stadium.
Even so, Australia have had to come back from behind to get to a point where levelling this Test series is a big possibility. And they will know, in all honesty, that they could have even been 2-1 up at this point with a little luck. Having let India off the hook in Delhi, Steve Smith & Co. will be itching to end the series with a win, and show that they have become an even better team for the bruising experiences they have suffered on the road, with greater staying power and adaptability.
When: India vs Australia, 4th Test, March 9-13, 09:30 IST, 04:00 GMT
Where: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
What to expect: The best batting conditions of the series, at least to start off. Smith, however, predicted that spin would come into play but will do so belatedly. That should automatically increase the likelihood of this Test extending beyond three days. A return to more normal subcontinental conditions will see the toss assume greater significance than it has been in this series so far where teams losing the toss have gone on to win each time. Meanwhile, the players will be treated to sweltering summer conditions in Ahmedabad with mid-afternoon temperatures forecast to hit 37 degrees Celsius during the Test match.
Team News:
India
Rahul Dravid hinted that India will be happy to stick to their 3-2 combination of bowlers. If at all, the hosts might consider bringing back Mohammed Shami and rest Mohammed Siraj. Ishan Kishan was picked in this squad as a keeper-bat in the mould of Rishabh Pant and has had significant time batting in the nets. But Rohit and Dravid have insisted that they are happy with how Bharat has gone about his two roles in the series and are willing to give him the space to succeed.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami/Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav
Australia
After the troubles in the early part of the tour, the visitors have a clean bill of health to report and thus have no reason to change their winning combination from Indore. There might be more of a bowling load for the seamers in the first innings of the Test and thus Cameron Green is likely to bowl more than the two overs he did in Indore.
Probable XI:Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith (c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann
Did you know?
- In the two Tests played at Ahmedabad in 2021, spinners picked 48 wickets at 14.65 while the 11 wickets for pace came at 30.64 apiece.
- Since the start of 2021, Pujara averages 19.05 in first innings compared to 49.38 in the second.
- Combined figures of Ashwin & Jadeja read 8/189 in Indore - the worst in 11 home Tests for the pair against Australia. The only other time they failed to pick ten wickets between them was in the 2017 Dharamshala Test. There they managed combined figures of 8/164.
What they said:
"Honestly, when you win two games, if the people outside are feeling that we are overconfident, it's absolutely rubbish, because you want to do your best in all four games. You don't want to stop by winning just two games, it is as simple as that. Obviously, all these guys, when they talk about being overconfident and all that, especially the guys who are not part of the dressing room, they don't know what kind of talk happens in the dressing room. Ruthless is the word that comes to my mind. Not to give any inch to the opposition when they are playing, especially when they're touring abroad, and that is exactly what we have also experienced when we have toured outside. The opposition will never let you come into the game, never let you come into the series. And that is the mindset we have as well. We want to do our best in all the games. If it seems overconfident or anything like that to the outsiders, it doesn't really matter to us." - Rohit Sharma on Ravi Shastri's accusing the team of having been overconfident before the Indore Test.
"I probably can't see myself coming back really, if I'm being realistic. But we'll wait and see, take it day by day, four years is a long time. I'll enjoy this one, hopefully it's a great crowd and we can entertain them and ideally finish the series really well." - Steve Smith on this potentially being his last Test in India.
Squads:
India Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Srikar Bharat(w), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav
Australia Squad: Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann, Scott Boland, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson, Lance Morris
