India Looks Win for Series Alive Against Australia

Melbourne: India must reverse a demoralising losing streak at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to prevent Australia from regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Friday's Boxing Day third Test.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's tourists trail 2-0 in the four-match series after defeats in Adelaide and Brisbane, and have lost their last five encounters at the MCG stretching back 23 years.

While India have competed well in the series, they unravelled both times in their second innings.

The Indians lost their last seven wickets for 73 to go down by 48 runs in Adelaide and nine for 148 to leave the Australians chasing 128 runs for a four-wicket victory in Brisbane.

While India routinely master Australia on their home pitches, winning the last seven Tests straight, it's the reverse situation Down Under. But the tourists now have pace weapons with Varun Aaron, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma.

Australia are likely to give batsman Joe Burns his Test debut as a replacement for hamstring-victim Mitchell Marsh, while senior paceman Ryan Harris is bidding for a recall after missing the Gabba Test with a quadriceps problem.

The home side has a pool of five pace bowlers to choose from, but ideally would go in to the Boxing Day showpiece with Mitchell Johnson, Harris and Josh Hazlewood, who took seven match wickets on his debut in Brisbane.

Smith will play under the threat of a one-match suspension if his team transgress again with slow over rates over the next 12 months after Australia was fined 30 percent of their match fees from the Gabba Test.

Smith, as skipper, was fined double that amount, and now must be mindful of keeping the game moving if he is to avoid a ban.

Teams

Australia: David Warner, Chris Rogers, Shane Watson, Steve Smith (capt.), Shaun Marsh, Joe Burns, Brad Haddin (wk), Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

India (from): Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni (Capt. & wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Suresh Raina, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Karn Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Varun Aaron, Akshar Patel

Pitch and conditions
Weather for the week is forecast to be moderate.

Stats and trivia

• India's last win against Australia at the MCG took place in February 1981. Defending a target of 143, Karsan Ghavri, Dilip Doshi and Kapil Dev razed Greg Chappell's side for a mere 83.
• With 323 runs in two Tests, Murali Vijay is more than halfway to Rahul Dravid's series aggregate record for an Indian batsman in Australia - 619 in the four Tests of 2003-04.

Match facts
December 26-30, 2014
Start time 1030 local (2330 GMT prev day, 0500 IST)