Rain could be India’s biggest ally on final day at Brisbane as visitors increase chnces of saving the test.
Rain could be the potential difference-maker for two teams who have different aspirations from the ongoing test at Brisbane.
With further rain expected on the final day, India has a good opportunity of finishing the Gabba Test with a draw thanks to the undefeated last-wicket partnership between Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep.
Australia on the other hand will be forced to bat after it looked likely that they would enforce the follow-on after having India 9 down with 33 still needed.
With a forecast of 2 to 25 mm of rain, which is comparable to what was anticipated for the fourth day when 58 overs were possible in between the breaks, additional disruptions seem inevitable on Wednesday in a contest that has only seen 192 overs over four days.
“High chance of showers, most likely in the late morning and afternoon,” said Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. “The chance of a thunderstorm, possibly severe.”
After seeing their chance of enforcing the follow-on taken away by Bumrah and Akash Deep, Australia will need as many overs as possible to force a result on the final day, which has 98 overs scheduled.
Australia would need to quickly take India’s last wicket and then possibly bat for about 20 overs to set a target in the region of 300 with about 70 overs remaining, depending on how generous they wanted to be. This would be the case if a full day’s play was possible, which has only happened so far on the second day when Travis Head and Steven Smith dominated with hundreds.
Although there is no cutoff time for bowling overs on the last day of a Test, light in Brisbane begins to go out at approximately 5:30 p.m. local time.
However, Australia is lacking a bowler because of Josh Hazlewood’s calf injury, so they could need to account for that in their strategy if the chance presents itself. Even though Australia’s assistant coach, Daniel Vettori, stated that frequent pauses had kept the quicks relatively fresh, Nathan Lyon would probably have to put in a lot of work.
“The weather, in terms of the breaks, allowed Mitch and Patty to come back on multiple occasions whereas if we’d played out the full 90 overs it would have been a lot tougher to manage,” he said. “We always have the luxury of Nathan and his ability to bowl a lot of overs. So that alleviated a bit of the concern but it’s always a tough one with a world class bowler being out.”
KL Rahul, who top-scored for India with 84, conceded that the frequent stoppages made it difficult for all the players.
“I think I got most tired running up and down from the dressing room more than being in the middle,” he joked. “But it was a challenge. It wasn’t easy for us. I’m sure it wasn’t easy for them as well to keep going on for a couple of overs, go back, sit in the dressing room, change again, come back. So, it was a frustrating day for both teams but it is what it is.”