Rain, SCG miracle won't spook Aussies into making haste

In professional cricket parlance, the drawn third Test of the compelling Australia-India series sits a world away.

Chronologically it's only separated from the current deciding match in Brisbane by five days (and geographically by 900km) but the events that saw India escape with a stalemate and place one hand on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy are consigned wholly to the past.

Or so the mantra from both competing teams invariably goes.

But after the storm clouds cleared from the Gabba this afternoon and umpires deemed conditions underfoot after the sub-tropical downpour to be sufficiently dangerous to abandon day two some uneasy memories of last week at the SCG might have stirred within Australia's dressing room.

After all, they need to win the fourth and final match of this Vodafone Series to wrest back the Trophy India claimed after the ultimate game of a hard-fought 2017 campaign on their home patch, before mounting an historic defence in the 2018-19 Australian summer.

India need only to hold out for another draw in Brisbane to keep hold of the prize, and the loss of today's entire evening session coupled with the forecast of more rain in the Queensland capital across the remainder of the Test seemingly makes the tourists' task marginally easier.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology on Saturday evening, there exists a 60 per cent chance of rain (up to 8mm) for Brisbane on Monday and an 80 per cent prospect (of up to 15mm) the following day – the last of the Vodafone Series.

It took 31mm of heavy-duty precipitation to render the Gabba surface unfit for resumption after the storm hit shortly before 3pm local time today, but those rain gauge measurements are not the only numbers that Australia's brains trust will be eyeing warily over coming days.

In Sydney, India survived 131 overs on a wearing SCG pitch to deprive Australia a victory most expected them to seize, especially after the tourists slumped to 3-102 chasing a notional 406 for victory early on the final day.

Currently, India are 2-62 in their first innings at the Gabba – 307 adrift of Australia's 369 – and play will begin earlier (9.30am Brisbane time) tomorrow with the minimum number of scheduled overs increased to 98 to claw back some of the time lost today.

Australia therefore are hunting India's 18 remaining wickets across two innings, with assistant coach Andrew McDonald insistent the dodgy forecast and not-so-distant memories of their rival's great escape won't trap players into pushing too urgently or desperately for breakthroughs.

"I don't think there's any danger of that," McDonald said after play was called off at the Gabba today.

"Day-to-day the weather forecasts can change in Brisbane, but I don't think there's going to be a rush from us.

"When you're bowling, you can't speed up the game anyway.

'It's all about processes and delivering the right ball in the right area, keeping it simple and if it's good enough to roll them for a lower score, that's great.

"You've got the opportunity then with the bat to be able to accelerate the game, but as it stands there's very little we can do in terms of that acceleration of the game.

"Ours is going to be process-driven and, as we saw today, they've got some quality batters and it's going to take some quality efforts from our men to be able to bowl them out in the first innings.

"And on the back end of that, we've got to be able to take 20 wickets to win it."

Australia's path to victory, and a 2-1 series win, will be significantly cleared by the removal of India's incumbent batters Cheteshwar Pujara (8no) and stand-in skipper Ajinkya Rahane (2no).

Not only are they the visitors' most experienced and accomplished players in a team drastically re-cast by injury, they are the same pair who resumed on the final morning at the SCG where other heroes later emerged as the tense day played out.

Pujara ultimately survived almost five hours in scoring 77, before the sixth-wicket duo of Hanuma Vihari (23no from 161 balls) and Ravichandran Ashwin (39no from 128) endured for more than three hours at the crease in the face of high-quality, and occasionally hostile bowling.

Neither of that pair is playing in the fourth Test owing to injuries sustained in the third.

And India's batting stocks are further weakened by their need to include 21-year-old debutant Washington Sundar in Ashwin's role as spin-bowling allrounder, batting at seven ahead of a final four that boasts a combined aggregate nine Tests appearances and 13 runs.

That includes seamer Navdeep Saini who sustained a groin injury on the opening day, and hasn't taken the field since that incident casting doubts upon his fitness to bat.

The other crucial difference to the SCG Test in which Australia claimed just three wickets across 97 overs on the tense last day is the nature of the pitch on which they're playing.

The Sydney track had shown signs of variable bounce on days two and three, but then failed to break up and deteriorate as expected which proved crucial in India's effort to survive.

By contrast, the Gabba pitch has been described as atypically dry since the first morning and was sporting a noticeable crack down the middle by the start of yesterday's play, which is expected to widen as the game progresses and present problems for batters from here-on.

McDonald noted he was unsure if this afternoon's heavy rain might play some part in slowing that process, or perhaps even help sections of the pitch to "close up" but he expected the pace of the Test to increase over ensuing days given the look of the surface.

"As the game wears on, those cracks should open up a fair bit more," he said.

"I think you'll see an acceleration of the game when the wicket starts to deteriorate, and that's not dissimilar to wickets around the world.

"We're optimistic that will happen, but if it doesn't we'll just have to find other ways to conjure up wickets."

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