India has a mountain to climb when they take on Australia in the fifth and final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Get our latest expert Australia vs India match betting tips, predictions and picks below.
Australia vs India 5th Test Information
- Venue: SCG, Sydney
- Date: January 3-7
- Time: 10.30 am local (11.30 pm GMT the previous day or 5 am IST)
- How to Buy Australia vs India 5th Test Tickets? You can get all the information about this here.
What Have The Two Teams Done Recently?
Australia
Before the start of this series, it had been a while since Australia had played a Test, having featured in a two-match series way back in March in New Zealand. They had clinched that series 2-0.
And the last time they played at home was last Aussie summer in which they crushed Pakistan 3-0 and looked to be on their way to winning the series against West Indies 2-0 as well before the men in maroon crashed into their party with a late victory in the second Test.
This rustiness had showed up in the first Test at Perth as Australia capitulated to an easy defeat but once they got into a rhythm in Adelaide, they bounced back nicely to grab a 10-wicket victory.
They looked good to scoop up the third Test too after taking a solid lead in the first innings but rain and the last wicket stand of Jasprit Bumrah and Akash Deep had other ideas and the match ended in a draw.
Australia then went on to take a 2-1 lead in the series by picking up seven wickets in one session of the MCG Test under the stewardship of the astute Pat Cummins.
Overall, Australia have a 416-233 win-loss record in Tests and in more recent times, i.e. since January 2020, they are a whopping 24-9.
India
Coming into this series, India had featured in five home Tests this season and rather shockingly, lost their first-ever home series since 2012.
They were at the receiving end of many records in that series – losing their first-ever Test series at home to New Zealand and getting whitewashed at home for the first time in a three-match Test series.
Earlier they had beaten Bangladesh 2-0.
What this meant was that when they defeated Australia in Perth, it led the experts to call it India’s best Test win overseas and for heads to roll in the Aussie camp. Things changed dramatically in the second Test as their batting woes continued to dominate the headlines as they fell to an easy defeat.
At the Gabba. the Indian bowling looked a little cooked despite having won what looked to be a good toss on a green pitch and their batting floundered yet again. A late resurrection and some rain allowed them to get away with a drawn game.
India had a chance to come away with a draw in the MCG Test but lost seven wickets in the final session to crash spectacularly under pressure and fall 2-1 behind.
Overall, India’s Test win-loss record is at 181-183 following their Boxing Day loss and since January 2020, they have a 24-18 win-loss record.
Australia vs India Head-to-Head Stats
- Overall Australia vs India Tests Head-to-Head: There have been 111 Tests played between these two great teams and Australia lead 47-33 on overall head-to-head at the end of the fourth Test in Melbourne.
- What’s fascinating to see is that over the last four Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, India has won them all. And even more coincidentally, India grabbed them by 2-1 margins. The last time Australia won a Test series against India was way back in 2014.
- Australia have a stellar record at home against India despite losing the opening Test, having won 32 and lost just 10 of their matches.
- However, this record has taken a bit of a beating over the last 10 years with 15 Tests yielding six wins for Australia and five for India to go with six draws.
Ground & Weather Updates
The weather looks fine for the first three days of the Test at Sydney before rain is expected on the fourth and fifth days of the match. With India needing a win to not just come away with a drawn series but to also stay alive in the World Test Championship this won’t be very thrilling news for them.
Four of the past six matches played at the SCG have ended in a draw with Australia winning the other two. Make that six of the previous 10 matches.
The last time Australia lost a Test at this venue was way back in 2011 to England. India’s last win at the SCG came in 1978 but in 2019, India looked to be headed to a win when they scored 622/7 and bowled Australia out for 300 before the weather had the final say.
Australia vs India 5th Test Preview & Predictions with Latest Odds*
India would be wondering what went wrong for them in Melbourne. They had shown remarkable resolve at various points during the series and in that game despite the atrocious form of their captain Rohit Sharma and were a session away from pulling off a superb draw.
Instead, they collapsed and lost seven wickets in that final session of hara-kiri which saw Rishabh Pant hole out a long hop to the deep mid-wicket fielder and Yashasvi Jaiswal getting caught by the keeper off a bouncer. The rest of them fell away in double-quick time.
Pat Cummins would be chuffed. Not only had he led his side to an improbable win, but he had done so with one of the more underrated but fine all-round performances.
Twice in the match, he bailed his side out of trouble with the bat and then went on to pick up six wickets, most of them at crucial phases in the match. This was the same bowler who had looked out of sorts in the first game and his team had borne the brunt.
The other player to talk about is Sam Konstas who got Australia off to a ripper of a start with his unorthodox batting and in doing so got under the Indians’ skins. The tourists will need to find a way to not let him rattle them as they look to carve out a series-levelling win here.
Konstas aside, India has their worries.
Rohit has looked so abysmal that it’s almost a given he’s not scoring runs – this is after he has tried everything, defending, walking down the pitch, trying to score aggressively, but nothing has worked.
Virat Kohli’s propensity to nick them to the slips has almost become a disease while Pant’s over-aggression has come in for a lot of scrutiny.
India also had gone into the previous match with a bit of a defensive mindset, trying to sort out the batting mess by playing an extra batting all-rounder and while that helped them all but save the game, it might not win them a lot of the matches away from home.
Australia could make a change or two depending on the fitness of Mitchell Starc and what they think of Mitchell Marsh’s form. India would like to bring in someone to bolster their batting but I guess that dropping either of Kohli or Rohit isn’t an option they would like to explore at this stage.
Australia vs India Match Winner
- Match to end in a Draw: 9/2
Australia vs India Top Batsman
- Top Australia Batter – Travis Head: 7/2
- Top India Batter – Rishabh Pant: 9/2
Australia vs India Top Bowler
- Top Australia Bowler – Pat Cummins: 43/20
- Top India Bowler – Jasprit Bumrah: 7/5
Australia vs India Toss Prediction
Australia to win the toss: 10/11
Australia vs India Other Predictions
- Team of Top Batter – Australia: 4/6
*odds correct at the time of writing.
Australia vs India Squads
Australia Squad: Pat Cummins (captain), Alex Carey, Scott Boland, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Usman Khawaja, Mitch Marsh, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Sean Abbott, Beau Webster. Sam Konstas, Jhye Richardson,.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar.
How to Watch Australia vs India 5th Test Live?
Indian fans in India can tune in to the Disney+ Hotstar app to watch the fifth Test between Australia and India live-streamed from Perth. The live broadcast of this entire series will be telecast on 7+ in Australia with Indian fans in the country able to watch the Hindi commentary of this series as well.
Australia vs India Series Schedule
- 1st Test: November 22-26 at Perth
- 2nd Test: December 6-10 at Adelaide
- 3rd Test: December 14-18 at Brisbane
- 4th Test: December 26-30 at Melbourne
- 5th Test: January 3-7 at Sydney
Well
What’s the fuckin’ odds?