After convincing wins in the first two Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, team India were humbled by the Aussies during the third match at Indore, where they were defeated within three days by 9 wickets to take the series score line to 2-1 in their favour.
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With eyes on winning the series, and also secure a direct qualification for this year’s World Test Championship final, Rohit Sharma’s men will take them on in the fourth and final Test at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, from March 09 (Thursday) onwards.
The recent news from the Australian camp is that Steve Smith will lead the side during the final Test match as well, with the regular skipper Pat Cummins opting to remain in Australia due to personal reasons.
Team India, on the other hand, will quickly need to address their batting woes which led to their downfall during the previous Test. While pitches have been curated to help their quality spinners right from the get go, the batters have had a challenging time before a comparatively lesser experienced spin attack.
Pitch report of Narendra Modi Stadium
The last two Test matches which were played at the Narendra Modi Stadium were one-sided contests in favour of the hosts, with the spinners managing to demolish the batting line-ups of both the teams.
While 28 out of the 30 wickets were scalped by the spinners during the third Test match of England’s tour at this venue in the year 2021, 20 off 30 wickets were picked by them during the fourth Test of the series.
While it might appear that the pitch at this venue would not turn out to be any different than the ones on which the first three Tests were played, things are likely to get evened out if the curators are to be believed.
“We haven’t received any instructions from the Indian team management and our local curators are preparing a normal track as we have always done through the season,” a state association source told PTI on Saturday.
The first look of the pitch does indicate the same as there are visible patches of grass throughout the length and breadth of the track, which might well mean that the spinners are not likely to turn the ball square right away.
Australia qualify for the World Test Championship finals
A win during the third Test match has guaranteed Australia a berth in the WTC finals which will take place in June this year. India, on the other hand, will face them in the final if they do manage to defeat them in the imminent final Test match of the series. In case of a draw or a loss, they will have to rely on New Zealand to avoid getting clean swept by Sri Lanka in the two-match series.
