India-Australia face off in third Border-Gavaskar series on December 14, all eyes on Rohit-Virat

With India all set to enter the Test battlefield against Australia on December 14, eyes are on the powerful two - Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. 

In the third game of the Border-Gavaskar series, India will eye to set the record straight on a spicy Gabba track.

With the series locked at 1-1, Brisbane could well decide the course of the rubber and whether Rohit's men would continue to be the master of their fate in the ongoing World Test Championship.

For India, the biggest hope remains in Australia's batting vulnerability which can lead to an implosion if a certain Travis Head doesn't decide to be the marauder.

Steve Smith is currently sailing in the same boat as Kohli if inconsistent batting form is taken into consideration.

In bowling, India has Jasprit Bumrah, who has made every other bowler in the series look pedestrian in his comparison.

He definitely needs more support at the other end but more than that, he needs runs from the likes of Rohit and Kohli as a psychological cushion while breezing in to unleash his thunderbolts.

Both Rohit and Kohli would still be a handful if they are asked to manage one of the two factors bounce or seam movement.

India's biggest challenge over the past year has been poor first-innings batting, with six scores of 150 or less in both home and away matches. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have struggled, with first-innings averages of 6.88 and 10 in the 2024-25 season. Kohli relieved some pressure with a century on a flat Perth pitch. 
However, Rohit needs a captain's knock to regain confidence and lead by example. Against world-class bowlers like Cummins, Starc, and Hazlewood, Rohit must avoid relying solely on aggressive batting to overcome challenges.

Senior off-spinner R Ashwin and Washington Sundar were steady without being exceptional in the first two Tests but Ravindra Jadeja is a safer option if India realistically want to add batting depth.

India squad: Rohit Sharma , Jasprit Bumrah , Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal.

Australia squad: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey , Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.