Gabba decider offers rivals history and hope

With Australia now needing to win the final Test of the Vodafone Series to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that India have held since 2017, it's safe to assume Tim Paine's squad can't get to the Gabba soon enough.

After a fruitless last day at the SCG that Paine characterised as difficult rather than deflating, the hosts have just three days to lose the frustration brought by India's great escape and prepare themselves for the series decider.

Before the chat surrounding quarantine restrictions and community transmission cast a cloud over the summer's Test schedule, Brisbane was to have been the venue where the Vodafone Series began which delighted the home team who rightly regard the ground as something of a fortress.

It's a view that's easy to share given the past 31 Tests played at the Gabba since the then-mighty West Indies won by nine wickets in November 1988 have yielded 24 Australia victories with seven draws.

But as today's remarkable result underscored, history is really only a friend to historians.

India entered the last day at the SCG needing to post the second fourth-innings score of 400-plus at the historic ground that first hosted Test cricket in 1882, and for the first three hours or more appeared on course to achieve just that.

Ultimately, it was the dismissal of Rishabh Pant for 97 as India's unlikely target dwindled to around 150 with just over 50 overs remaining that slowed the charge, and then the injuries that hobbled the bottom half of their batting that gave them few options but to play for a stalemate.

To achieve that, they needed to absorb more deliveries than any other team batting last at the SCG since South Africa endured 117 (eight-ball) overs in scoring 5-326 in 1964, a remarkably similar final score to India's eventual total of 5-334 from 131 overs of the six-ball variety today.

Paine and his men know from the bitter experience of Headingley 2019 – when England's last pair Ben Stokes and Jack Leach defied not just history but reality itself to steal a famous win over their Ashes rivals – that records only exist to be re-written.

But as Pant was bludgeoning Australia's attack with all the abandon and the same measure of blithe good fortune as Stokes had enjoyed on that sunny long weekend in Leeds, Paine maintains his men did not experience debilitating flashbacks to that wretched afternoon.

"At no stage did we have that feeling (of another improbable loss)," he said at game's end tonight.

"We thought we had plenty on the board – either we'd win or it would be a draw.

"Obviously we wanted to win the game and I thought we created enough chances to do so.

"I wouldn't say it's deflating, I think there's a lot of positives out of the game.

"I thought it was an awesome game of Test match cricket, I thought India fought bloody hard like we knew they would.

"Clearly we're disappointed not to get a win but I thought there were some good signs for us after the Melbourne Test match.''

While India walked away from the SCG with an equal share of the final result, the mood in their camp was demonstrably brighter even allowing for the ever-mounting toll of absent and injured players that means their resources will surely be stretched in fielding a team at the Gabba.

That complication is compounded by quarantine restrictions that rule out the possibility of flying in late replacements from home, as well as the pressure that will come on the squad's medical staff to patch-up those wounded who will be required to report for duty on Friday.

So far, India are without captain Virat Kohli (paternity leave) and fast bowlers Ishant Sharma (side strain that ruled him out of the whole series), Mohammed Shami (fractured arm in Adelaide) and Umesh Yadav (calf strain in Melbourne).

Added to that toll from the Sydney Test are yesterday's batting hero Hanuma Vihari (hamstring tear) and spin-bowling allrounder Ravindra Jadeja (dislocated and fractured thumb) while Pant and Vihari's match-saving partner Ravichandran Ashwin are also nursing sore spots.

Pant was unable to keep wickets in Australia's second innings at the SCG after copping a blow to the left elbow while batting, and Ashwin's wife revealed on social media this evening that he suffered a "a terrible back tweak and was in unbelievable pain" on Sunday night.

Yet the 34-year-old withstood a fearsome assault from Australia's trio of fast bowlers as well as a few pointed verbal barbs from Paine as the match entered its final hour, before ending the day 39 not out having faced 128 balls across more than three hours.

His unbroken stand with Vihari, rendered lame by his leg injury, might have yielded just 62 runs but soaked up 259 deliveries to grant India the right to head to Brisbane with a front-runner's mindset even if the series scoreline shows 1-1.

"This was as good as winning a Test match," India's stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane said in the wake of today's draw.

"When you come abroad and play a match like this, it is really special.

"We are really happy with this result."

From the dressing room on the other side of the SCG's heritage-listed Members' Stand, Paine was nowhere near as sanguine.

Having dropped three catches on a day when Australia missed a total of four chances – the other being a spectacular attempt at square leg by substitute fielder Sean Abbott who was on the field for injured opener Will Pucovski – Paine felt a degree of culpability for his team's failure complete the victory they set-up.

Pucovski was sent for scans after hurting his right shoulder when diving to make a save in the field this afternoon, and an update on his fitness for the Gabba is expected tomorrow morning.

"I'm bitterly disappointed," Paine said at day's end. "I pride myself on my wicketkeeping and I haven't had too many worse days than that.

"It's a horrible feeling knowing that our fast bowlers and our spinner bowled their hearts out and gave everything for the team, and I certainly let them down."

Paine also cited the rain that dogged Sydney in the lead-up and on the opening days of the Test as a possible reason for the pitch's failure to break up despite having shown signs of variable bounce from as early as day three.

India entered the fifth day two wickets down, though effectively three after Rahane was dismissed less than 10 minutes into the morning session.

But despite boasting perhaps the most potent all-round attack in contemporary Test cricket, Australia managed just two more breakthroughs for the ensuing 96 overs.

That represented the first time since the 1987-88 Ashes – when Australia ground out a draw for the loss of just two last-day wickets thanks to David Boon (184no from 431 balls) and Geoff Marsh's soporific 56 from 215 balls – that so few wickets have fallen during a full fifth day's play at the SCG.

Paine believes the prospect of a bouncy Brisbane track will provide the panacea his frustrated fast bowlers need to regain the winning touch that's deserted Australia since that day in Adelaide last month when they humbled India for their lowest-ever Test total.

"I think they're pretty well conditioned to it now, and they handle the load pretty well," Paine said of his bowling attack that faces a short turnaround before their next assignment.

"They know that after that Test match they've got to rest up for the Gabba.

"I think they enjoy bowling at the Gabba, it's a bit easier on the body and they like seeing the ball fly through, so it's a bit easier for them mentally as well.

"It's enjoyable for them up there, so I think they'll be fine to go."

Vodafone Test Series v India 2020-21

Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner

India Test squad: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan

First Test: Australia won by eight wickets

Second Test: India won by eight wickets

Third Test: Match drawn

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT