Australia vs India: Jasprit Bumrah removes Usman Khawaja in Brisbane. Photo: AP/Pat Hoelscher Australia vs India: Jasprit Bumrah removes Usman Khawaja in Brisbane. Photo: AP/Pat Hoelscher

India taking on Australia in front of a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day is big. (Streaming | More Cricket News)

Well, in the fourth Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy that kicks off on Thursday, December 26, it gets bigger.

The stakes for both teams are higher - with pride, series, and World Test Championship qualification on the line.

If India manage to win the Melbourne Test, they retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and make it three on the trot on Australian soil. 

If Australia win the Test, the hosts keep the series alive, with so much to play for heading into Sydney - and all of the action is set to unfold in front of an expected 90,000 crowd. 

Border-Gavaskar Trophy: Head Declared Fit As Australia Name XI For Boxing Day Test In Melbourne

BY Outlook Sports Desk

After Ravichandran Ashwin’s shock retirement in the middle of the series, India have added Mumbai off spin-bowling all-rounder Tanush Kotian for the fourth and fifth Tests.

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While Australia have named 19-year-old batting sensation Sam Konstas in the playing XI, with Scott Boland replacing the injured Josh Hazlewood.

The hosts, who were sweating on Travis Head’s fitness, have deemed the 30-year-old fit to play. 

"Trav's good to go, he'll play. He just kicked off some final things today and yesterday. But no worries about injury with Trav. He'll go into the game fully fit,” Pat Cummins was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au

India Vs Australia: Head-To-Head Record In Tests

Matches: 110

Australia wins: 46

India wins: 33

Drawn: 30

Tie: 1

India Vs Australia, 4th Test Melbourne Weather ReportMelbourne Weather Forecast Photo: Screengrab AccuWeather Melbourne Weather Forecast Photo: Screengrab AccuWeather India vs Australia 4th Test: Expected line-ups

India Probable XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Rohit Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep

Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Scott Boland

India vs Australia Squads

India: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (Wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Tanush Kotian, Rishabh Pant (Wk), KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill,  Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar.

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Scott Boland, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Sam Konstas, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India vs Australia 4th Test Prediction

According to recent performances and form22win, and with respect to the conditions at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia start as favourites.