What

The third Test of the four-match series between Australia and India

When

January 13-17, 2012. The game begins at 8:00 am, IST.

Where

Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA), Perth. The WACA has a reputation for being the fastest wicket in the world and all reports leading up to this game suggest that the Indians will have another quick surface to reckon with. The hosts have lost only two Test matches at this venue since November 1997, a clear indicator of their dominance over here.

The Teams

With James Pattinson out of the series due to a stress fracture on his left foot, Ryan Harris has been announced as a replacement in the Australian playing eleven. The 32-year-old has successfully battled a hip problem and built up his fitness with an intensive training regimen to return to the hosts’ squad. It will be interesting to see if Australia opt for a four-man pace attack with 21-year-old Mitchell Starc coming in to replace offpsinner Nathan Lyon. Starc, to his credit, boasts the same pace and bounce that made Pattinson such a formidable adversary for the Indians.

The only other concern dogging the Australians is the form of their top three batsmen. Between them, David Warner, Ed Cowan and Shaun Marsh have only 145 runs to show from nine innings. They have been consistently found wanting by the moving ball and have only one half-century (Ed Cowan at Melbourne) to show for their efforts. With the wicket at Perth likely to be a quick one, the trio’s batting skills will be tested once again.

India, undoubtedly, have more problems. It’s not like their batsmen haven’t scored runs. Barring Virat Kohli, each of their main batsmen – from Virender Sehwag to MS Dhoni – has scored at least one half-century in the two losses. Sachin Tendulkar even managed two half-centuries. The bigger problem is that those contributions have been solitary rather than in partnerships. Where the Australians have one triple-century stand, one double-century stand and two hundred-plus stands, the Indians have only two partnerships of over a hundred runs in this series.

Besides that it would be interesting to see if the Indian management makes any changes to the side that played in Sydney. Virat Kohli, with 43 runs from four innings, and R Ashwin, with four wickets after 95 overs, could possibly be replaced by Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha respectively.

Key players

Having been under tremendous pressure at the start of the series, Ricky Ponting finally seems to have silenced critics. The Australian batting legend has posted 50-plus scores in each of his three innings in this series, with the hundred at Sydney paving the way for a mammoth Australian score. A return to the No. 3 spot is surely in order.

Virender Sehwag must inevitably get a big knock for India upfront. The one time Sehwag scored a half-century (67) in this series, in India’s first innings at Melbourne, the Australians were under pressure. Four years ago, when India beat Australia at Perth, Sehwag’s return to the side had a similar impact on the Aussie bowlers.

Trivia:

• 54 more runs and Ricky Ponting will become the first batsman in Tests to aggregate 1,000 runs at five different grounds. Ponting has scored 946 runs in 15 Tests at Perth. He has already scored more than 1,000 runs at four grounds – 1,480 runs at Sydney; 1,442 at Adelaide; 1,338 at Melbourne and 1,335 at Brisbane. Ponting currently shares the record for scoring 1,000 runs at four different grounds with South Africa’s Jacques Kallis.

• R Ashwin has been India’s second most successful batsman in the series so far with 143 runs, behind only Sachin Tendulkar (226).

Venue Stats:

Highest total in an innings: Australia 735/6 decl. in 146.3 overs v Zimbabwe - October 9, 2003

Lowest total in an innings: Pakistan 62 in 21.2 overs v Australia – November 13, 1981

Best individual score in an innings: Matthew Hayden (Australia) – 380 v Zimbabwe - October 9, 2003

Best bowling figures in an innings: Glenn McGrath (Australia) 16.0-8-24-8 v Australia – December 16, 2004

Average first innings score at the WACA: Overall - 330, since 2000 – 366

Average second innings score at the WACA: Overall - 316, since 2000 – 284

Result summary at the WACA:

Head-to-head:

Last meeting between both sides at the WACA: 16-19 January 2008

Brief scores: India (330 & 294) beat Australia (212 & 340) by 72 runs

Form guide (most recent listed first):

India: Lost, Lost, Drawn, Won, Won (2 wins, 2 losses)

Australia: Won, Won, Lost, Won, Won (4 wins, 1 loss)

The Squads:

India: MS Dhoni (c & wk), Virender Sehwag (vc), R Ashwin, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, VVS Laxman, Abhimanyu Mithun, Pragyan Ojha, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ishant Sharma, Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Vinay Kumar and Umesh Yadav

Australia: Michael Clarke (c), Brad Haddin (vc), Ed Cowan, Ryan Harris, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mike Hussey, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc & David Warner

All stats are as onas on January 12, 2012