India hope to salvage some pride with a consolation victory in the fourth and final Test, commencing at the Wankhede stadium, in Mumbai, on Wednesday.
The Indian team management decided to leave newcomers Dheeraj Jadhav and Bengal medium-pacer Shib Shankar Paul out of the 12-member team, announced on Tuesday.
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That decision basically means that Delhi opener Gautam Gambhir and Tamil Nadu wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik will make their Test debuts. Gambhir has played for India in one-dayers as has Karthik, but both acknowledge that Test matches are a completely different ball-game.
"The final spot will be a toss-up between left arm paceman Ashish Nehra and left arm spinner Murali Karthik. We will decide on the final eleven after a look at the wicket tomorrow," captain Rahul Dravid said.
Australia have already clinched the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after taking an unassailable 2-0 lead after overwhelming India by a whopping 342 runs in the third Test at Nagpur.
"They punished us badly in Nagpur and if you want to play well you have to compete. There is lot to play for all our team members. There's no need to motivate anyone for a Test whatever may be the status of the series," Dravid said after the team's extensive practice session lasting three hours.
The Indians are desperately trying to rediscover the batting form they showed in Australia and Pakistan which seems to have deserted them totally in the ongoing series.
"We know that we will be thrashed unless we play well. We competed well in Chennai. We have to play good cricket. That's our focus. We are all keen to do well," Dravid said.
The Indians have looked clueless at times against the strategies employed by the Australians. While the Australians acknowledge that they have been preparing for this series since a long time, many felt that the Indians have not utilised their resources well.
"We had game plans. We studied them and tried to set fields for them. It is unfair to say that we went into the match without planning. They did counter us better. We were unable to execute our plans while they executed theirs perfectly. It's something to learn from and you keep learning throughout your career," said Dravid.
The hosts were outplayed in the first and third Tests, losing at Bangalore and Nagpur by huge margins with the top-order failing to click. The second Test was well-contested before rain washed out the entire fifth day's play at Chennai.
India, already without the services of skipper Sourav Ganguly, will be hoping to get things back on track. The batsmen have been woefully out of form and Australia's bowlers have exploited every opportunity.
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