Captains shape a fascinating finale

In his Test-match eve media conference ahead of the final match of an abbreviated Australian Test summer, Steve Smith promised to be a more attacking stand-in skipper should the circumstances that brought him criticism in Melbourne be repeated.

Five days later, they are.

And thus we will learn shortly before 10.30am Sydney time tomorrow if he is true to his word.

When the ultimate day of the Boxing Day Test began just under a fortnight ago, Australia was in front by 326 runs with three wickets up their sleeve and the likelihood of rain further curtailing a day in which they were already going to be hard-pressed to take 10 Indian wickets on a pitch that refused to misbehave.

Quick Single: Smith leads Aussie onslaught

The fact that Smith opted to bat on throughout the opening session of day five and ran short of time to pick up the four Indian wickets Australia needed for victory led to a chorus of complaints that he had played safe rather than enact that “aggressive brand of cricket” his team so cherishes.

He defended his conservatism by pointing out the drawn result had delivered a series win, and with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy secured he and his teammates were freed up to chase victory with a little more flair come the new year.

“If the same thing comes around again I'm sure I'll be a bit more aggressive,” Smith said last Monday, hardly imagining that an almost identical scenario would confront him in consecutive Tests.

With a day to play in the SCG, Australia’s advantage is a trifle more (348), their batting reserves slightly stronger (four wickets to fall) and the weather experts similarly forecast a 50 per cent chance of showers in the afternoon and early evening.

So he’ll be declaring on Australia’s overnight score of 6-251 right?

So that he can maximise the number of overs available to his bowlers to convert their almost-absolute dominance of the past month into a three-nil Commonwealth Bank Series scoreline?

Smith speaks with Channel Nine after play on day four 

Umm, we’ll see how we feel in the morning, was Smith’s cagey response when interviewed on television after light rain and heavy cloud brought a slightly early end to play today.

Fronting an evening media conference following his spectacular innings of 66 from 39 balls, Test greenhorn Joe Burns was even less forthcoming.

“I think the second-gamer doesn’t get too much say in those sorts of decisions,” Burns said, showing an aptitude for parrying questions that belies his international experience.

Burns deflects questions about an overnight declaration

Given that no team chasing a fourth innings win in Sydney has bettered the 288 Australia sauntered to for the loss of just two wickets against South Africa nine years ago, it would seem inconceivable that Smith would even entertain the thought of sending his batsmen back out in the morning.

But for a 25-year-old captaining in his first Test series, and leading his nation for the first time on his beloved home ground, a couple of doubts might well pop into his head during the course of this evening.

Firstly, how tough will chasing a score become if Australia’s batsmen – most notably Burns, Chris Rogers (56 from 77 balls), Brad Haddin (31no from 30) and the captain himself (71 from 70) – skipped along with barely a false stroke during a hectic final session today?

That final couple of hours, admittedly against a dispirited bowling attack showing no real inclination to doggedly attack or defend, yielded in excess of 200 runs at more than a run per ball.

Should India’s target remain at 348 and they replicate that sort of scoring frenzy tomorrow, they’ll chase the total down before the scheduled break for tea.

Of course, the variable in that equation is the fifth-day pitch.

And India’s spinner Ravi Ashwin – who made two breakthroughs but also went for more than 100 runs from his 19 overs this evening – did his best to raise some doubts in Smith’s thinking by suggesting there’s not too many demons in that Sydney track.

Ravi Ashwin fronts the press after day four 

"It's a wicket where if you apply and bat, it's going to be hard to get you out,” Ashwin said, invoking the memory of the first Test in Adelaide when India came within 48 runs of their improbable last-day victory target of 364.

“We batted pretty well in Adelaide and there's not a lot of devils in the (Sydney) wicket.”

Burns maintains the pitch is increasingly offering spin and that Nathan Lyon looms as his team’s trump card, with the possibility that reverse swing and variable bounce are also factors that Australia might be able to exploit.

But the fact that India got as close as they did in Adelaide due largely to captain Virat Kohli’s century, and that the same player has enjoyed a Smith-ean run of form since then might cause some discomfort in the Australia dressing room when they arrive at the ground tomorrow.

Kohli was brilliant in compiling his fourth century of the series on day three

And it’s not only Kohli that will figure in their discussions.

Opener Murali Vijay partnered Kohli for much of that final day in Adelaide and deserved better than his 99, while Ajinkya Rahane has been the tourists’ other form batsman of this series and he showed in Melbourne he can handle a fifth-day pitch.

Then there’s the small matter of Rohit Sharma whose performances in the first two Tests was so shaky he lost his place in the XI, but has been elevated to number three in the batting order.

Just one berth lower than when he thumped a world record 264 in a 50-over international against Sri Lanka last November.

The other element that Smith will doubtless will take into his decision, and which could as easily work to Australia’s favour as to their detriment, is that India will set out after whatever target is set.

Provided it’s within reason, which it wasn’t in Melbourne.

"At no point did we not think about chasing the score down,” Kohli said after his team slipped to defeat in his first Test as captain in Adelaide, adding they would have suffered a much heavier loss if they had tried to bat time and hope for a draw.

There’s no reason why that same approach shouldn’t be taken into tomorrow.

And we have the word of both captains as assurance.