Hyderabad, Nov. 4: ‘Backs to the wall’ is the ideal adage to describe Australia, a day ahead of the crucial fifth one-dayer against India at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Thursday. More than their exploits on the field, the exigencies created by injuries to key players have been discussed extensively. Wednesday saw Peter Siddle and Moises Henriques joining the injured bandwagon and returning home.

To top it, ‘fit’ players such as Mitchell Johnson have suddenly lost form, bowling poorly at the Indian batters who are ready to grab the gifts with both hands. But, a look at the scoreline suggests something else.

The series is tantalisingly poised at 2-2. That sums up what these Australians stand for. They might be low on fitness, but not in fervour. Led by Ricky Ponting, the Australians have a big task of putting together a fit XI for the game, a task equivalent of scoring a victory against an Indian side who appear match-fit.

The Men in Blue announced on the eve of the match that Gautam Gambhir is fit, news that will bring cheer to the capacity crowd expected to throng the venue. However, left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra did appear to be in some sort of discomfort during practice but skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni brushed it aside when he said that there was no injury scare.

Unlike their opponents who have problems both on and off the field, the Blues have their share of woes on it. For starters, Sachin Tendulkar has had modest outings with scores of 14, 4, 32 and 40. He will be looking to cross the next milestone of 17,000 (he needs seven more) but the team will want him to score much more than that. Dhoni will be concerned about the form (or the lack of it) of Ishant Sharma who has just bowled 10 overs (five each) in the last two games going for 0/24 at Delhi and 0/42 at Mohali and the ground fielding will have to be augmented if the home team aim to get better of their opponents.

This dark cloud does have a silver-lining in the form of Yuvraj Singh, who has amassed 224 runs at this venue with back-to-back centuries and will not mind a hat-trick.

Yuvi’s love for the ground was evidently when he walked to the wicket, bent down and kissed it just before practice on Wednesday. The southpaw will want nothing more than to kiss his opponents good-bye on Thursday.

Teams

Australia: Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Hussey, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Hauritz, Jon

Holland, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White and Clint McKay

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (c), Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Ishant Sharma, Munaf Patel, Ashish Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Sudeep Tyagi, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja.