A Deserving 2-1 Series Lead for India against Australia

On a green top Melbourne Boxing day wicket, Virat Kohli won the toss and batted first, with 2 new openers and not many gave a chance for Indians, especially after losing the test match at Perth. Hanuman Vihari provided a solid start and could not convert his effort into a personal milestone, but in the event of a win, his time at the crease was highly significant. Mayank Agarwal was not only brilliant with the bat, but also showed lot of promise as a bat-pad catcher. His 2 catches at forward short leg and 1 at silly mid-on was outstanding.

Pujara and Kohli played with a mission. They curtailed all their strokes and batted time to stitch in a match winning partnership. 215 runs at the end of 1st day and 228 runs on the 2nd day raised eyebrows as to the manner in which, Indians went about building the score. It turned out to be a great strategy, as the wicket started helping the bowlers, as the game progressed. Indian fast bowling trio, Bumrah-Ishant-Shami were unstoppable, especially Jasprit Bumrah bowled a match winning spell by picking 6 wickets and helped Indians bowl out Australia for a paltry score of 151 in their first innings.

A Lead of 292 runs was sufficient for Kohli and team, considering the bowler friendly Melbourne wicket and a weather forecast of heavy showers on Day 4 and Day 5. Much to everyone's surprise, Kohli decided to give his bowlers a rest and batted again. This decision did not hurt India too much, but the 2nd innings performance, both with the bat and the ball was no where close to a number one Test team's performance. Pat Cummins picked up a 6 for 27 in his 11 overs and wickets were gifted by Indian batsmen, as they played too many loose shots down the leg side.

Indians could add only 106 runs by losing 8 wickets and Kohli declared the innings to set Australia 399 to win the 3rd test. Shuan Marsh, Travis Head, Tim Paine and Usman Khawaja failed to convert their starts into a big one, pretty much the same story in this series so far. Pat Cummins fought with lot of grit and a lonely battle to score 63 and he could not stop Indians from going 2-1 up in the series, nor rains could save the aussies.

While Indians can cherish the victory, they could not hide some selection woes for them before the Sydney test. One can never get convinced that Rohit Sharma is a permanent fix for No.6 slot, as his shot selection is too loose for a Test call. In his first innings score of 63 not out, he did survive a drop catch by Peter Siddle, when he had scored only 15, Nathan Lyon being the unlucky one. Still, Kohli might not meddle with Rohit Sharma in Sydney. Ashwin would be fit for Sydney and Kohli should decide, whether he would play 2 spinners to increase his chances of winning the series 3-1. Kohli could think of bringing in Ashwin in place of Rohit Sharma.

Australians have lot of thinking to do now, as they are under tremendous pressure to square the series in Sydney. Tim Paine has to deliver more, both with his strategy and his contribution with the bat. Batsmen need to convert their starts into a big one and the same bowling combination would try to stop Indians from stitching partnerships. A wonderful series finisher coming up in Sydney and Indians have a great chance to create History.

Wonderful chance for India to conquer Melbourne

It was a strange sight for cricket lovers to see Melbourne wicket, low and slow, on day two of a test match. May be, the ground was under prepared as the Sheffield tournaments and Big bash league hosted several matches prior to the boxing day test. The runs did not come easy for Indian batsmen, as they had to spend quality time and play a quality innings to build a tall first innings score.

Mayank Agarwal played a dream test debut innings, as he was tested by Australian bowlers with high quality pace, movement and bounce. He left the bouncers with precision and played Nathan Lyon with lot of assurance, which was missing even from some experienced players in Indian batting line up. He left a strong message to the selection committee that he is one of the answer to top order worry. His knock of 76 was well appreciated by cricketing legends and everyone felt that a debut hundred would have been icing on the cake.

The openers toiled and the seniors stood up for the efforts of the 2 youngsters, when they backed it up with classy individual efforts of their own. Yet another classy hundred from Chetheswar Pujara, Kohli and Rohit Sharma's fifties and Rahane's crucial partnership with Rohit Sharma extended our first innings to a sizable score.

Australia batted for only 6 overs after Kohli declared the innings, when India reached 443 for 7. The six overs had its challenges for both the Aussie openers, as the wicket kept low, even with the new ball. Ravindra Jadeja will have a role to play and Kohli might even throw the ball to Hanuman Vihari, in absence of Ashwin, who would have made it tough for Australian batsmen to settle and play a long innings.

Day 3 would be crucial for India's chances to gain a lead in the series. The only benefit for Australian batsmen is the slowness of the wicket and if Australia could bat out time, they could push the Indians to play their second innings too, as they could target the follow-on score with couple of good partnerships. It is very tough to score runs at a faster pace in this wicket. Indians should get Australia all out before first session of Day 4, so that they could pull a win out of this boxing day test.

Kohli should use his bowlers wisely, as longer spells for the need of the wicket, would tire his fast bowlers quickly. Ravindra Jadeja and Vihari should help the Indian fast bowlers to stay fresh in their spells, which should ideally be result oriented in form of wickets. Test match is poised nicely and Indians have placed themselves strongly to effect a win from here.

Boxing Day Test - Australians would start as Favourites

Australia would start as favourites, when the third test begins at Melbourne on the Boxing day. 1981 was when India won a test match in Melbourne. Australians have ruled us here, with the exception of the 2014 test match, when M S Dhoni and Ashwin batted time out to effect a draw. Virat Kohli has fond memory, as he smashed a big hundred with Ajinkya Rahane in 2014 test match. These two would try to repeat their sweet performances. Other staunch reasons for australia being the favourite are,

Captain's Trust

Indian opening batsmen and few others in the team, are not getting the support from the captain as expected. To win in overseas condition, a team needs to have a settled opening pair, else it would be tough to regroup even with match winners like Kohli, Pujara and Ashwin. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja are the two players, who do not earn captain's trust in crucial encounters.

Settled Aussie Line-up

Australians would not change their playing eleven, irrespective of the nature of the wicket. Nathan Lyon and Hazelwood are the prime wicket takers and Pat Cummins & Mitchell Starc are wonderful support bowlers and all the 4 would continue to hunt in packs, which would be very tough for Indian team. Tim Paine stuck to the same playing eleven, even after losing the test match to India in Adelaide. It speaks volumes of the trust he had on his playing eleven.

Ashwin's Injury

Ashwin is often compared to the likes of Nathan Lyon in this series and to me, their individual performances have contributed to their respective teams winning a test match. His Injury has come at a wrong time, when Indian team has the best chance to beat Aussies at their own backyard. Kohli would miss his services, as australian playing eleven has lot of left handers and Ashwin has a good chance to get the better of them.

Weak Indian Middle Order and Tail enders
The middle order and the tail order needs to be packed with bowling all rounders, which is crucial for stitching partnerships, that would be defining the match results. Indians miss this trick, while Starc, Lyon and Pat Cummins are stitching crucial partnerships for Aussies, which is disrupting India's plans to effect a win.

Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane & Pujara are the three batsmen in form, while all the others fail to impress. This does not help India's cause, especially going into the boxing day test, with Australia winning the last match. Two new openers would add more pressure to these 3 batsmen.

Ravindra Jadeja is a good addition to the playing eleven. He would give his 100 per cent, as he always does. Yet, he would not be a regular feature, because he is a classic example of playing in case of an emergency and not the captain's obvious choice. One doubts Rohit Sharma's performance in test matches, as he would not put a heavy price on his own wicket, time and again. But, he is definitely one of the captain's favourite.

A promising opening pair might bring in some surprise for Indians, but Mayank Agarwal and Hanumant Vihari has to face the brunt of a settled Aussie attack. Australia would try to dominate from first session and win this test match to go 2-1 up, before Sydney. Indians are already on the back-foot and would try hard to stop aussies. A very good test match on the cards...