Boxing Day Match in Gavaskar-Border Series: Third Test Match between India and Australia in Melbourne

Boxing Day match, the third test match between India and Australia is being played in Melbourne. India wants to win the match and Australia want to clean sweep the series. According to Aussies ex cricketers such as Rickey Ponting, India has bright chances of winning the match at Melbourne.

Melbourne: The third test match between Australia and Team India is being played in Melbourne now. Australia is leading the series with 2-0 and India has to win the last two tests to save the face. India has a better record in Melbourne. The team played 11 matches here and it won 2 matches, lost 8 and the other was a draw. India won a match in 1981 on this ground.

It is true that Dhoni is one of the best captains for Team India as far as limited overs cricket matches are concerned. He is also the captain who captained the team for highest wins in test matches. He also has another record to his credit. That is his failure as captain when the team is playing outside India. India played 25 matches on foreign grounds and lost 14 in his captaincy. It won only four matches.

After Dhoni became the captain of Indian team, the first series played in India against South Africa was a draw. After this it won seven series and drew three series. All these were played in sub-continent. The team lost the world number one rank after humiliating series defeat in England and Australia. There is no improvement in situation even now. Presently India is ranked 6 in test matches. If it loses the Melbourne test being played now, it will be ranked 7.

Dhoni’s batting record is not so good on foreign grounds. He scored 4841 runs in 89 matches with an average of 38.11 in test matches and on foreign ground his average is only 32.81. In the last 22 tests, Dhoni scored only 1061 runs with 27.20 average. He failed to score a single century. Dhoni is now facing tough challenge. On one side young Kohli is ready to take up the captaincy and other side the team is facing the risk of losing the Gavaskar-Border series. Will Dhoni change the luck of team India? We will have to wait and see.