India may begin the 2019 Journey while making a history by beating Host Australia in the fourth Test starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Thursday (January 3, 2019).
Though the top-ranked India has already secured the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by leading the four-match series 2-1 but it would be of huge disappointment to Virat Kohli’s side if it doesn’t turn the fortune in its favour this time.
India has been to Australia 11 times for Test series before since 1947; however it never sealed a series victory against Aussies on their soil. They only contentment it may live with that it drew three Test series there in 1980/81, 1985/86 and 2003/04.
So it would be a memorable and mammoth victory for India if Australia succumbs to defeat in the last Test as well.
For the fourth Test, India has already announced its 13-member Squad excluding Ishant Sharma for his ribcage injury. Though Ravichandran Ashwin is part of the Squad but his inclusion in Playing XI will subject to a fitness test just before the commencement of the match.
India name 13-man squad for SCG Test: Virat Kohli (C), A Rahane (VC), KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, C Pujara, H Vihari, R Pant, R Jadeja, K Yadav, R Ashwin, M Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav
A decision on R Ashwin’s availability will be taken on the morning of the Test #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/4Lji2FExU8
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 2, 2019
Rohit Sharma has already returned to India after he was blessed with a baby girl in Mumbai.
Like India, Australia is also likely to go through some changes and recall Marnus Labuschagne and Peter Handscomb.
Earlier India won the Adelaide and Melbourne Tests by 31 and 137 runs respectively against Australia. But it lost the Perth Test by 146 runs.
Overall, Australia enjoys a convincing superiority over India as out of 97 Test matches between them, the former won 42 while latter 28.
