India vs Australia: Kohli and Paine pose with Border-Gavaskar trophy at the Indian Summer Festival in Melbourne - Watch

The Indian and Australian captains, Virat Kohli and Tim Paine posed with the Border-Gavaskar trophy at the Indian Summer Festival in Melbourne on Sunday. Cricket fans thronged Yarra Park to catch a glimpse of their stars.

 

Ahead of the Boxing Day Test, the two squads mingled with fans on @BupaAustralia family day during the Indian Summer Festival #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/5qlxhSSRKA

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 23, 2018

India began the four-Test series in the best possible way, by winning the first Test by 31 runs, but then lost the second Test by 146 runs. Going into the third Test, India may not have the services of ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Head coach Ravi Shastri revealed Ashwin is racing the clock to be ready for the crunch Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, where the stakes are high in the four-Test series.

“As far as Ashwin is concerned, we are going to take a look and evaluate over the next 48 hours,” Shastri said.

Left-arm off-spinning all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja is also carrying a niggle, but experienced batsman Rohit Sharma, who also missed Perth after hurting his lower back, is fit again.

“He has made a very good improvement but then again we have got to see how he pulls up tomorrow. But he looks good as of today,” said Shastri.

India go into the Melbourne showdown with Kohli and number three Cheteshwar Pujara is fine form, effectively carrying their team during the Adelaide and Perth games.

But the opening pair of KL Rahul and Murali Vijay have struggled for runs and Shastri said that needed to change.

“It’s a big concern,” he said when asked about the failure of the openers to get a big score.

“It’s obvious and that responsibility and accountability has to be taken by the top order.”

(With agency inputs)