Australia Battle Rain, India For Series Win

If Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur shared 9/134 on a Day 4 wicket, what will Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood achieve on a Day 5 wicket?

India go into Day 5 having after being decisively bested over the first four days. To win from here, they require a miraculous once in a life time innings from one of their players, like Gordon Greenidge’s 214 or Mark Butcher’s 173. More realistically, they need rain interfere as much as possible.

Given the way this series has gone, partisan Indian fans think a win is not out of the question. Perhaps this is a measure of just how unexpected they think the outcomes in this series have been thus far. This is a strange thing because India have been competitive everywhere they have toured in recent years, and dominant in a few places.

It would be a shame if this series were to end with rain. Australia have been the better side and a 2-1 result to them would reflect this superiority. India have been competitive. Having bowled Australia out twice here at Brisbane, they will covet the opportunity to chase a famous result.

If the rain miraculously stays away, and if India do chase these runs on this wicket against this attack, then it will be an epic effort. It might be a thought, should the openers produce another start while the wicket is still under the influence of the roller, to promote the left-handed Rishabh Pant to number 3, mostly because the evidence suggests that Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins prefer to bowl to right-handers.

Australia will believe that they won’t need more than 60 overs to bowl India out in the 4th innings at Brisbane. If the rain stays away for a couple of sessions, it could be enough.