India vs Australia: Steve Smith's poor form; Rahane, Lyon eye milestones; key stats ahead of Sydney Test

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Sydney, Jan 5: Australia will look to forget the humiliating defeat in the Boxing Day Test and will hope the "very likely" return of David Warner can inspire them to regain the series lead as they take on India in the third Test at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) starting Thursday (January 7).

Team India produced an impressive turnaround in Melbourne Test and squared the series at 1-1 despite being without Virat Kohli and also losing the toss. Stand-in Ajinkya Rahane stood up in the absence of the regular captain, making 112 to set the tourists up for an impressive eight-wicket victory.

Their confidence dented with the defeat in Boxing Day Test, Australia would take positive from the fact that they are undefeated in their last nine Tests against India at the SCG. Indeed, their only defeat in meetings between the teams at the venue came in January 1978.

The hosts reacted to the defeat by dropping out-of-sorts opener Joe Burns, having made just 63 runs in four innings during the series. Warner and Will Pucovski were both injured and missed the first two Tests but head coach Justin Langer gave a positive update on the former, who he thinks will be able to play through the pain.

Uncapped prospect Pucovski, meanwhile, has passed concussion examinations so will challenge Travis Head for a place in the side. While the expected return of Warner could give them a boost, Australia will also be looking for a turnaround from Steve Smith.

Smith has only managed scores of 1, 0 and 8 during his completed innings in Adelaide and Melbourne, with spinner Ravichandran Ashwin having him caught in two of those three dismissals.

Ranked at three in the ICC rankings, he had only failed to reach double figures in two of his 14 previous innings since returning to Test cricket in the 2019 Ashes.

Here are a few key facts ahead of Sydney Test:

# India have lost only two of their last nine Tests against Australia (W5, D2) - they now search for back-to-back wins against them for just the second time since 2013.

# Australia's loss in the second match snapped an eight-game winning run in Tests at home; they will now look to avoid consecutive home defeats for the first time since November 2016.

# The home team dropped eight catches last time out in Melbourne, their most in a single Test since dropping nine against India in the New Year's Test of 2012 in Sydney.

# Ajinkya Rahane could become the fifth batsman to score 1,0000 Test runs in Australia. So far Sachin Tendulkar (1809 runs in 20 Tests) tops the list. Rahane has scored 797 runs in 10 matches on the Aussie soil and could very well become the fifth batsman to enter the elite club.

# Rahane also have the chance to become the 10th Indian batsman to score at least 3,000 Test runs overseas. The Mumbaikar has so far scored 2891 runs in 40 matches away from home. He has scored at an impressive average of 45.88, which is better than the likes of Virat Kohli (44.23) and VVS Laxman (42.49).

# Ricky Ponting (8) is the only player to have logged more centuries at the Sydney Cricket Ground than David Warner (7) in international cricket.

# No player has taken more wickets (10) or posted a better bowling economy (2.1) than India's Ravichandran Ashwin throughout this series.

# Nathan Lyon is six wickets shy of becoming just the third Australian bowler to take 400 in men's Tests (Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath); his 89 wickets against India are his most against any team.