India will be eyeing to create history and achieve a rare feat that no other Indian team could ever do in the past and that is winning a test series in Australia. The visitors outplayed the hosts in the 3rd test at the iconic Melbourne cricket ground where they won by 137 runs to take 2-1 lead in the domain test series and also retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
Virat Kohli and company will be eager to take the winning momentum forward and get the job done in Sydney to start the year on a high and win the test series by a convincing margin.
Meanwhile the BCCI has named the 13 member India squad for the fourth test against Australia and Rohit Sharma is one of the absentees in the team as he flew back to Mumbai post the birth of his new born baby girl on 30th December.
Two key players ruled out
R. Ashwin was named in the squad but skipper Virat Kohli has confirmed that the Chennai all-rounder has not finally recovered and in most likely terms he will miss the test match which may open doors for Kuldeep Yadav to be the second spinner alongside Ravindra Jadeja.
“It’s unfortunate that he’s(Ashwin) had two niggles that are quite similar in the last two away tours. He’s very important for sure. In Test cricket, he’s a vital part of this team and we wanted him to be 100 percent fit for a longer period to that he can come back to us in the Test format. He is very disappointed that he’s not able to recover in time,” Kohli said.
Ishant has also suffered some pain in left rib cage due to which the team management didn’t risk of playing him in a crucial match and opted for a fitter player in Umesh Yadav.
