Sydney Harbour Bridge's New Year message a nightmare for Australian team

The year 2018 was a forgettable one for Australian cricket. They not only lost two of their most talented batsmen besides a young talent in the Sandpaper gate fiasco earlier in the year but their loss left some damaging impact on the Baggy Green’s performance both on and off the ground. The team is now on the verge of losing their first-ever Test series at home to India and there is a general sense of despair for not many are seeing ready replacements available for Steve Smith and David Warner, two of their big names who were banned for a year in the year just ended.

Goof-up that cost millions

The country was in for more shock on the New Year’s Eve when the message “Happy New Year 2018” welcomed millions who thronged the Sydney Harbour Bridge instead of “Happy New Year 2019”. The goof-up started trending on the social media in no time and besides the fact that it led to a loss of 5.78 million Australian dollars, the worse effect of it could be on the psyche of the Australian cricketers who hope with the dreaded year that went by, their bad days are also a thing of the past.

The fourth and final Test match of the absorbing series begins in Sydney on Thursday and with Virat Kohli’s men comfortably placed with a 2-1 lead, it is all on Australia’s shoulders, that are not looking too strong at the moment, to do whatever it takes.

They showed a lot of character to win the second Test in Perth after India won the first one in Adelaide but after the hammering, they received in Melbourne where the Indian bowlers were too tough to handle for them, the task of making it 2 all becomes all the tougher. On the top of it, the surface at the Sydney Cricket Ground is known to be spin-friendly and that could make the hosts toil harder.

Australia have particularly been found wanting in their batting department. While the Indians have picked up three hundreds in the series and even debutant Mayank Agarwal chipped in with a 76 in Melbourne, the highest individual score for the hosts in the series is 72 by Travis Head in Adelaide and Usman Khawaja in Perth. That itself is a statistical confirmation of how bad it has been for the home team in this series.

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