After the opening two matches were shared, we are down to an effective best of three in the Test series between Australia and India and the first of those games begins in Brisbane on Saturday as the two sides look to go one up with two to play.
This series is already living up to the billing and you suspect the longer it goes the better it is going to get, especially with the prize for winning this match being as strong as it is. We should be in for five wonderful days of cricket.
Australia
Whether Australia scheduled it that way only they will know but they would have been expected to win the opening game in Perth in conditions which suit them much more than an Asian nation and then they had the day-night Test match where their record is very good so they would have perceived to have a great chance to be 2-0 up heading to Brisbane. The opening Test didn’t follow that script though but they deserve great credit for bouncing back from what was a pretty heavy mauling in the first game to level the series in the second.
Time will tell how much of that win in Adelaide was down to the pink ball and the day-night conditions and how much of it was that Australia are getting on top of their opponents here but the one thing we do know is that Australia are bowling well in the series. They probably still aren’t batting as well as they would want to but they should have conditions which suit their batters here and if they can bat well there is no reason why they can’t be competitive here at the very least.
India
I would imagine when India set off for this series in Australia they would have been thinking to themselves that if they could find a way of sharing the opening two matches in either order that they would think that they have enough in their armoury to get the job done in the last three games. They have ticked that box and now they will be looking to come out on top at three venues in which the conditions are going to be least alien to them.
If India are going to go on and win the series from here they will be looking to bat well. Even in Perth they didn’t bat like they could, although to be fair they were missing a couple of key players in the order for that match. We know that this bowling attack can get on top of Australia and stay there so if their batters can come to the party, especially in the first innings and get Australia under more pressure, then there is success for them in this series.
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Team News
Australia have confirmed that Josh Hazlewood has been passed fit to return to their side so they will make one change to their side. He will come in for Scott Boland in what is an otherwise unchanged XI for the home team.
Unless India wish to bring R Ashwin back into the side at the expense of Washington Sundar, they are expected to be unchanged, but they could tinker with their batting order with talk that Rohit Sharma will return to the top of the innings.
Betting
This series has been a little up and down for my liking in terms of being extremely confident with bets and getting stuck into more than one of them but there is a bet I like here and it comes in the form of Mohammed Siraj and his performance line. He has had a decent series so far with four wickets in the only real innings he bowled in during the day-night match in Adelaide and in Perth he picked up five wickets.
He has a performance line for this match of 88.5 which would be covered with five wickets here, but as he did in Adelaide, he could cover this with four wickets and a few runs in both innings that he bats. Were he to take a catch in the match he would only need four wickets as well and at this ground where the pitch favours the seamers I would be surprised if he doesn’t get at least four poles and there has to be a high chance of him getting five. However it is covered I expect this line to be cleared.
Tips
Back M.Siraj’s Performance – Over 88.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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