Australia's Steve Smith hits a six during the first day of the third Ashes cricket test against England at the WACA ground in Perth December 13, 2013.
Australia's Steve Smith hits a six during the first day of the third Ashes cricket test against England at the WACA ground in Perth December 13, 2013. David Gray

Australia will take on India in the second of the four Test Matches for the Border-Gavaskar Series from Dec. 17 to 21 at Brisbane, Queensland. This pitch is supposed to be the best for fast bowlers therefore Australia have an inherent advantage. There is a change in captaincy for both the teams, Australia are being led by the young Steve Smith whereas the veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni is back from injury to lead India.

The first Test Match at Adelaide was as close to the perfect match as possible in reality. Two teams played hard at each other. All four results seemed possible till the last hour of the fifth day's play. A dramatic batting collapse in the Indian side triggered by the guile and craft of the off spinner Nathan Lyon won the match for Australia.

Australian batting unit is in red hot form. David Warner scored centuries in both the innings in the last Test Match. His opening partner Chris Rogers is one of the very few struggling for runs. Shane Watson got starts in both the innings and would hope to convert one into a big score sooner rather than later. Michael Clarke will be missed and as a result, the newly appointed captain Steve Smith will bat at number four. Having scored a century in the first match should give him plenty of confidence to score even more runs in the rest of the series. Shaun and Mitchell Marsh, who played two very effective innings in the previous match, should complete the batting line up for the home side.

Mitchell Johnson would no doubt relish the opportunity to bowl at the Indian batsmen on this deck, as they have a history of struggling at playing quality seam bowling. Ryan Harris was unlucky not to bag more wickets in the first Test Match as he bowled his heart out. Unfortunately he has been left out of the second Test Match because of injury. Peter Siddle needs to improve his game as he was not as effective as he should have been in the previous match. Nathan Lyon should be the most confident bowler in the whole squad right now after his heroics in the first match. Unhelpful conditions should not bother him at all. He showed a lot of determination in the last match to keep bowling at the right line and length until he was successful.

Nothing deflates a team more than losing a match from being on the verge of winning it. The Indian cricket team are low on morale and confidence right now. In such a situation taking the playing conditions and the personnel into consideration, Australian cricket team should not find it too difficult to win this match much quicker than the first one.

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