India look to seal WTC final spot, Australia seek redemption

India are expected to enhance their aura of invincibility at home with another series win while a down and out Australia will need nothing less than a monumental effort to bounce back in the third Test beginning here WednesdayIndia have already secured the BorderGavaskar trophy and they will now be playing for a recordextending 16th straight series win at home and a guaranteed spot in the World Test Championship final in JuneLeading 20 in a fourmatch series India are sitting pretty and just need to make one tough decision of choosing between outofform K L Rahul and Shubman GillRahul is no more the vicecaptain of the side but the team management has shown tremendous faith in him and he might well get another opportunity to get back among the runsThe only hundred of the series which has been dominated by spinners has come from the bat of Rohit Sharma If India get to bat on day one the conditions will be ideal for the likes of Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli to pile on the runsThe trio of Ravindra Jadeja R Ashwin and Axar Patel has not just delivered with the ball it has also scored the bulk of the runs so far in the series Since they cant be expected to get runs in the lower order regularly the onus lies on the toporderAlso Read BorderGavaskar Trophy I feel like Im pretty much at full tilt despite some levels of discomfort says Mitchell StarcContrary to Australias inexplicable sweeping tactics Indian batters have adopted the conventional approach against the impressive Australian spinnersRohit has been brilliant with his feet movement Kohli too has looked assured in the middle and an unbeaten 31 from Cheteshwar Pujara in his 100th Test must have made him more confident going into the third TestThe square at the Holkar Stadium houses pitches with both black and red soil The curators have decided to go with the black soil which usually doesnt offer as much turn and bounce compared to red soil tracksTheir battered and bruised opponents Australia have got a lot of time to reflect on their defeats in Nagpur and Delhi The debacle in Delhi where they effectively lost the game in session should hurt moreIn terms of their squad composition a lot has changed with Pat Cummins back in Australia to be with his ailing mother Ashton Agar Josh Hazlewood and David Warner too are back home Steve Smith will lead the sideThe visitors could not be faulted for the amount of effort they are putting in to stage a comeback in the seriesThey seem ready to shun the inexplicable sweeping tactics they employed in Delhi and are expected to take a more conventional approach to counter the rampaging Ashwin and JadejaSuch has been their domination that Patel has only got to bowl 26 oversHow the Australians defend against the spinners will be key to their chances here Runs are always vital but their batters need to bat long It has to be a mix of caution and aggression as the over attacking style of play is likely to be counterproductiveTravis Head is expected to open alongside Usman KhawajaKhawaja struck a wellmade 81 in Delhi and Head briefly put pressure on the spinners with his aggressive play Trust head to continue in the same fashion while Khawaja will be expected to play the waiting gameThe fulcrum of their batting Smith and Labuschagne average less than 30 so far in the series and without their runs an Australia fightback will be highly unlikelyAllrounder Cameron Green is fit again alongside Mitchell Starc and both are expected to start on Wednesday Australia are likely to continue with three specialists spinners in Nathan Lyon Todd Murphy and Matthew KuhnemannSquadAustralia Scott Boland Alex Carey Cameron Green Peter Handscomb Travis Head Usman Khawaja Matt Kuhnemann Marnus Labuschagne Nathan Lyon Lance Morris Todd Murphy Matthew Renshaw Steve Smith captain Mitchell Starc Mitchell SwepsonIndia Rohit Sharma c KL Rahul vc Shubman Gill Cheteshwar Pujara Virat Kohli Shreyas Iyer KS Bharat Ishan Kishan Ravichandran Ashwin Axar Patel Kuldeep Yadav Ravindra Jadeja Mohammed Shami Mohammed Siraj Umesh Yadav Suryakumar Yadav Jaydev UnadkatMatch starts at 930am ISTThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever