After an intense exchange of the willow and the leather in the first three encounters of the series, it has now boiled down to what seems like the final battle, that will decide the fate of the WTC finale for India as a win is a necessity and anything less than the aforementioned upshot is going to spark a huge firestorm of vitriol.
India will be coming to this fixture on the back of a staggering defeat at the hands of Australia in the third Test where their batters crumbled in front of a spinning Nathan Lyon who knitted together a web of mystery around the hosts as the Indian batters could barely contest the heat of Australian spin.
With all said and done, India may opt for a few changes and it will be interesting to see what is the possible course of action that the hosts resort to where they may bring in Kuldeep Yadav as an additional spinning option while they go short with a batter or we may also witness the induction of KL Rahul to man the Indian middle-order that has seemed so shaky.
Australia will be high on confidence as they will try and push the momentum forward from the third Test, particularly the one that has been spun into existence by the triptych of Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann. The return of Mitchell Starc also assured that India faces the best of bowling options which will force them to be on their toes and if they are to have any chances of getting back in the hunt of the series without the spoils shared. A total of 14 Test matches have been played in the Narendra Modi Stadium and as things stand, the results are pretty evenly poised with 4 games have been won batting first while another 4 were secured while chasing. The remainder of the games ended in a draw. The average first innings score has been 338 while the average score in the second is 337. The numbers exhibit a sharp slump as it reads 236 in the third innings while showing 147 in the fourth. Hence, if you are winning the toss, opt to bat.
