India's Virat Kohli reacts as England's Matt Prior (2nd L) is dismissed during the second cricket test match at Lord's cricket ground in London July 21, 2014
India's Virat Kohli reacts as England's Matt Prior (2nd L) is dismissed during the second cricket test match at Lord's cricket ground in London July 21, 2014 Philip Brown

The last and the final part of the Australia v India prediction articles will take cue from the previous two and tries to analyse the influence that the captains will have on the series. As the Indian cricket team will have at least two captains in the series, we will look at the profile of three individual players here.

Michael Clarke is 33 years old and is coming to the end of his captaincy reign. Be it poor form or the persistent back injury, either of the two will make him handover the captaincy sooner rather than later to his successor. To add to that he has already retired hurt after going past a half century in the very first opportunity he got to bat in the series. In spite of that he is still a tremendous cricketer who will be able to change the course of this series. He averages more than 50 in Test Match cricket and has scored 27 centuries. There are not many crickets who can match this kind of record.

However his fans might disagree, Manhendra Singh Dhoni's game is more suited to the limited overs format. He has won the 50 overs ICC Cricket World Cup and the Champions Trophy and also the 20 overs World T20 tournament. Unfortunately he has not been able to translate this form into the Test Matches, especially away from home. He averages less than 40 in Test Matches and has scored only six centuries in the 88 Test Matches that he has played. He has also not been able to win a series away from home in a major Test Match playing nation. To sum up Michael Clark is the better bet between the two.

Here Virat Kohli can step in and make a substantial difference. He is young but has already achieved a lot in his career. He will deputise for Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the all-important first Test Match and potentially that can upset the odds. With Wriddhiman Saha coming in, his wicket keeping will not be missed either. The captains usually carry their form into the captaincy style that they practice on the field and Virat Kohil has been in good form of late. Whatever be it, from Dec 9, Adelaide Oval is the place to keep your eyes on to find out.