IND vs AUS 3rd Test: After two dominating outings in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy, Rohit Sharma's brigade will now play against Steve Smith's Australia in the third match of the series in Indore. Their two wins from two matches in the series have not only made them retain the trophy but have also made them stand at the door of yet another World Test Championship final. If India clear this challenge, they will be the first team to make the WTC finals for a consecutive time.
India's happy hunting ground Indore
India's love for Indore has a nice space in Test cricket. India have played two Test matches in Indore and they are not only unbeaten but have thrashed their opponents. They faced New Zealand in the third test in October 2016, where India won the match by 321 runs. Meanwhile, the Men in Blue defeated the Bangladesh side by a margin of an inning and 130 runs in November 2019.
India lead the Border Gavaskar Trophy by 2-0
Australia find hard to crack India's code
Meanwhile, the Aussies have found it way difficult to crack India's code in the ongoing series. They were handed an inning and a 132 run defeat in the first test, while they faced another hard 6-wicket loss in the second. Their batters have mostly made them look down, with only 2 of them getting to a fifty-plus score. Australians have been bowled out on 2 occasions in just over a session. While the Indian batters have traded far better than their counterparts. There have been more than 4 fifty-plus scores for India, with one being a brilliant ton by Rohit Sharma.
Australia's bowling has also found it hard going, however, their spinners have done a fine job in phases. Meanwhile, the Indians have enjoyed in this department too, with 32 out of 40 wickets coming for them by the spinners.
How's the pitch in Indore
The pitch at the Holkar Cricket Stadium generally suits the batters. The average 1st innings total at this venue after 2 Tests is 353, which drops down to just 153 in the 4th innings. Any team batting last on this deck wouldn't want to chase anything over 150.
The pitch at the venue is a mix of red and black soil. Red soil was used in Nagpur Test, while black soil was used in Delhi. The red soil will give more bounce and turn, while the black pitches offer low bounce and slowness. The black soil will hold the pitch from not deteriorating quickly.
India's squad for the 3rd Test:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), K L Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat.
Australia's squad for the 3rd Test:
Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey(w), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Cameron Green, Scott Boland, Lance Morris
