India v Australia - Second Test

Punjab Cricket Association, Mohali, October 17-21.TV: 2.30pm, Fox Sports 2, live.

Radio: 702 ABC Sydney, 2.55pm and 5.40pm.

Weather: Cool and wet yesterday. Today's forecast is fine and 28 degrees.

Pitch: Has a reputation as one of the quickest in the country but frequent downpours have affected preparation and Ricky Ponting, who has had a quick look, thinks it has been tailor-made for India's spinners.

Umpires: Asad Rauf (Pakistan), Rudi Koertzen (South Africa).

Match referee: Chris Broad (England).

Odds: India $3, Australia $3.40, draw $2.15

Likely teams

India: Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V.V.S Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Dhoni, Anil Kumble (c) (subject to fitness), Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh (possible 12th man).

Australia: Simon Katich, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Clarke, Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Cameron White, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark (subject to fitness), Jason Krejza (possible 12th man).

History

Overall: India 16, Australia 34, 22 draws, 1 tie.

In India: India 11, Australia 12, 13 draws, 1 tie.

At this ground: India 0, Australia 0, 0 draws.

Past five Tests in Mohali: India defeated England by 9 wickets, India v Pakistan draw, India v New Zealand draw, India defeated England by 10 wickets, India v New Zealand draw.

Who could forget

Australia's dramatic win at Mohali in the 1996 World Cup semi-final. The West Indies were cruising through the run-chase and then lost 8-37 to lose by five runs, Damien Fleming knocking over Courtney Walsh to finish the job. Ricky Ponting is the only current Australian player to have featured in that game, and made a duck.

Look out for for

Brett Lee on a livelier pitch to move past Craig McDermott (291 wickets) and become Australia's fourth-most successful Test bowler behind Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Dennis Lillee. "Billy the Kid was a brilliant bowler, someone I loved watching steam in as a youngster," Lee said. "To think I am level with him is pretty amazing but pretty special."

Tour guide

Sikhs in magnificent, bright turbans on motorbikes and whole families in auto-rickshaws hurtle down the wide boulevards of Chandigarh, a municipal capital that has drawn comparisons with Canberra for its organised urban layout. The Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, a suburb of Chandigarh, was built on a swamp in the early 1990s, and it's a majestic structure from which you can see a faint, pencilled line in the distance that is the start of the Himalayas.

The stat

Sachin Tendulkar needs 15 runs to dethrone Brian Lara as the most successful batsman in the history of Test cricket. Amazingly, the little master is not necessarily the most famous Indian sportsman in the spotlight this week, for Indian chess master Viswanathan Anand is in a tense battle with Russia's Vladimir Kramnik at the World Chess Championship in Bonn, Germany. Anand was recently voted India's greatest sportsman of the past 60 years. Tendulkar was fourth.

Punter watch

The skipper yesterday wore a hefty bandage around his wrist, the one he injured in the Caribbean this year, having tried a different anti-inflammatory before training. "It hasn't got any worse," Ponting said.

•