Brisbane: Rohit Sharma’s elegance and Virat Kohli’s class will face the ultimate ‘Test’ when India take on an Australian team eager to set the record straight on a spicy Gabba track in the third game of the Border-Gavaskar series, starting Saturday.
With the series locked at 1-1, Brisbane could well decide the course of the rubber and whether Rohit’s men would continue to be the master of their fate in the ongoing World Test Championship.
For India, the biggest hope remains in Australia’s batting vulnerability which can lead to an implosion if a certain Travis Head doesn’t decide to be the marauder.
Steve Smith is currently sailing in the same boat as Kohli if inconsistent batting form is taken into consideration.
In bowling, India has Jasprit Bumrah, who has made every other bowler in the series look pedestrian in his comparison.
He definitely needs more support at the other end but more than that, he needs runs from the likes of Rohit and Kohli as a psychological cushion while breezing in to unleash his thunderbolts.
Rohit, Kohli and the constant chatter
The decibel levels of “outside noise” about the duo’s waning form have been rising for a while but the two contemporary megastars will be determined to lead the way on a ground where an Indian team showed resilience like never before back in 2021.
The numbers have been unflattering for the duo and they would be the first ones to admit that stats always don’t lie.
Both Rohit and Kohli would still be a handful if they are asked to manage one of the two factors — bounce or seam movement. The hosts served them a double whammy — bounce with liberal sprinkling of grass for some extra seam movement.
They have the skills but the form, at least for the time being, has deserted the duo.
India’s biggest issue has been terrible first innings batting during the past one year in both home and away fixtures with six totals of 150 or less during the period .
And Rohit and Kohli’s first innings average in the 2024-25 season reads a rather poor 6.88 and 10 respectively.
Kohli has managed to get rid of some pressure with a hundred on the eased-up Perth track. But for Rohit, a captain’s knock is needed not just to boost his confidence but also help him assert as a leader who shows the way.
Rohit is experienced enough to know that he can’t always hit his way out of trouble against world-class operators like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood, who is once again fit to play with Scott Boland making way for him.
Rohit has been a white ball colossus all his life but if he can lead the way at Gabba, he will forever be considered cricketing royalty. But for that, he first needs to decide his batting position.
He isn’t trusting his defence enough and looks like a walking wicket if the ball darts around like it promises to at the Gabba.
Is he good to open or better off at No. 6 where if the top order plays a steady game, he can attack the old Kookaburra that hardly does anything?
Only the skipper can answer that question.
Is there space for Jadeja?
Senior off-spinner R Ashwin and Washington Sundar were steady without being exceptional in the first two Tests but Ravindra Jadeja is a safer option if India realistically want to add batting depth considering his good record in overseas conditions.
As far as pace bowling is concerned, Akash Deep is blessed with more skills but skipper Rohit loved rookie Harshit Rana’s big heart.
How Australia are stacked up
In case of Australia, their batting is no less fragile than that of India’s.
Head has had a Rishabh Pant-like effect on his days, which often come against India.
But Steve Smith’s form is a worry as the Indians have been bowling straight lines to him. Marnus Labuschagne laboured his way to a half-century in Adelaide but he still doesn’t look his old prolific self.
Nathan McSweeney has showed grit during the first innings in Adelaide even though there is a long way to go before he becomes a surety in the side.
But one aspect that Australia has done well to figure out is India’s reliance on Jasprit Bumrah’s first spell with new Kookaburra. The home side knows that if it manages to play that out without too much damage, it can put pressure on other bowlers, who aren’t half as good as the Gujarat slinger.
Teams:
Australia (Playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal.
Match starts at 5:50 am IST.
