After a disheartening 184-run defeat in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), India are no longer the masters of their own fate in the race to the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final 2023-25. India desperately need to register a win at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in the New Year's Test against Australia to ensure that they remain in contention for a place in the final and to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
India are trailing in the series by 2-1 after the loss at the "G" and a loss or a draw in the New Year's Test will pull the curtains down on their quest to register a third consecutive berth in the WTC final. A win in Sydney will take India's PCT (Percentage Points) to 55.26 and that would be enough for them to join South Africa in the final of the WTC 2023-25 cycle if Australia were to register no more than two draws in Sri Lanka.
If Australia draw both their Test matches in Sri Lanka, then the reigning WTC holders will finish on level terms (on PCT) with India, but the two time finalists will make the cut as they have registered more series wins in the ongoing WTC cycle.
India's Test record at Sydney Cricket Ground
India played their first red-ball game at the SCG under the leadership of Lala Amarnath in December 1947. The Indian side took on a well-oiled Aussie team, led by Donald Bradman. However, despite the foreign conditions and their inexperience, India held Australia for a draw.
Team India have played 13 Tests matches at the Sydney Cricket Ground and have only registered a solitary win. Team India have lost five Tests at the SCG and drawn seven.
India Squad:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Shubman Gill, Tanush Kotian, Dhruv Jurel, Devdutt Padikkal, Sarfaraz Khan, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana
Support Staff: Gautam Gambhir, Abhishek Nayar, Ryan ten Doeschate, T Dilip, Morne Morkel
