India have a chance to hold the Proteas by the scruff of their neck with the latter seemingly at their weakest following back-to-back defeats,
Pacer Jasprit Bumrah earned his maiden call-up to the Test squad, while Parthiv Patel made a comeback for the three-Test series in South Africa.
Rajneesh Gupta presents statistical summary of Chennai Super Kings and much more.
Check out the Chennai Super Kings squad for IPL 2014.
With the second Test set to start on Wednesday, here is a quick fact check on how both teams stand at the Gabba.
Ravindra Jadeja's gutsy 77 and Munaf Patel's brisk unbeaten 36 guided Rest of India to 260 in their first innings on the opening day of their Irani Trophy match against Ranji Champions Mumbai in Nagpur on Thursday.
Opening batsman Gautam Gambhir was dropped while India's medium pacer Bhuvaneswar was recalled to the 16-man squad for the next three Tests against England.
Mumbai Indians have won three out of the four IPL finals they have been part of, including the two against CSK in 2013 and 2015.
The World Cup is just a couple of months away, and even after even a 0-2 loss in the just-concluded T20 series there won't be any shift in plans as far as skipper Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri are concerned.
How do India and Australia's teams stack up? Rajneesh Gupta presents all the numbers.
India will look to plug the chinks in its armoury and provide finishing touches to its preparation for the four-Test series when it takes on the West Indies Cricket Board Presidents' XI in the final warm-up match, starting in Basseterre, St Kitts, on Thursday.
The left-hander suffered the injury while taking a single off Sunil Narine's bowling and limped off. He struggled to run subsequently and holed out off Narine's bowling.
India mounted a positive reply after Steve Smith's unbeaten 178 and Glenn Maxwell's maiden century powered Australia to a series-high 451 on day two of the third Test in Ranchi on Friday.
India's new chief coach Anil Kumble will be keeping a keen eye on speedster Mohammed Shami's fitness along with the form of opener Shikhar Dhawan when the team begin its tour of West Indies.
The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League will commence, on Saturday, April 7 and will end on 27th May
Australia captain Steve Smith struck a cultured unbeaten century on Thursday to steer Australia to 299 for four wickets on the opening day of the third Test against India in Ranchi, signalling he has put the review controversy at Bengaluru behind him.
For the legion of CSK fans, it will be a homecoming like no other as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side will play at the M A Chidambaram stadium in Chennai for the first time since May 2015.
There should be no clampdown on citizens seeking help on the presumption that they are raising false grievances on the internet, the Supreme Court said on Friday, terming the second wave of Covid-19 cases as a national crisis.
India should bring back Cheteshwar Pujara, Harish Kotian tells Messrs Kohli and Shastri.
India have the perfect opportunity to find a solution to their top-order batting woes before their year-end series in Australia when the world's top-ranked side host two Tests against lowly West Indies, starting on Thursday.
Shikhar Dhawan's poor technique in testing conditions along with the fitness status of Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin will come up for discussion when the selectors pick the Indian team for the two-Test series against the West Indies.
'It's not about four or five bowlers; it's the balance that can get you 20 wickets. Like I have kept saying in the past, it depends on conditions' 'Competition for places, nothing like it. It goes to show everyone is one his toes, nobody will rest on his heels'
Murali Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara eye top 10 places while Ravindra Jadeja jumps to career-best third position among Test all-rounders.
Afghanistan's controversial campaign, marred by poor on and off-field decisions, has gone from bad to worse. They now face the onerous task of squaring off against a galaxy of world class players, whose performance graph is on the upswing.
It will be a big statement if Virat Kohli's young side could start off with a bang at Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 'spritual home', a task which will be easier said than done.
A look at how the teams stack up ahead of the mega auction.
Former captain Kapil Dev said the Indian team with its right balance of youth and experience along with the "unmatchable" duo of Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni will definitely reach the World Cup semi-finals.
It will not be the first time that the competition has had to be held outside India.
Given the controversy over Uttar Pradesh's population control moves, Hemant Shivsaran/Rediff.com digs deep to find out how many children BJP MLAs in UP have.
'I think Jaddu is the kind of bowler whose bowling style suits all kind of wickets. The kind of variation he has, he never moves away and bowls tirelessly at the same spot' 'He was hitting a consistent spot where, if it skidded on straight it was hitting the stumps, and if it spun you were a chance to nick it'
Kohli's 147 -- his 15th Test hundred -- and an equally confident 136 by Murali Vijay enabled India to extend their first-innings lead to 51 runs in reply to England's 400.
Delhi Capitals rode on Prithvi Shaw's fluent fifty and a disciplined bowling effort to inflict a 44-run defeat on Chennai Super Kings, in the Indian Premier League, in Dubai, on Friday.
Shikhar Dhawan's injury has unintentionally forced India to go for a tactical rejig despite convincing victories in the first two games against South Africa and Australia.
India beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 239 runs in the second Test in Nagpur after the touring side were bundled out for 166 shortly after lunch on the fourth day.
Gambhir's remarks came after CSK's 16-run loss against Rajasthan Royals by 16 runs in the IPL
The second day's play of the second Test match between India and South Africa in Bengaluru on Sunday was called off without a ball being bowled because of rain.
Rohit Sharma carried his bat, scoring 83 not out, while putting on two good partnerships. He first stitched a 61-run partnership with Dhawan at the top of the order and then joined hands with Dhoni to see India through.
The Men in Blue have never won a bilateral ODI contest on Australian soil.
Ravi Shastri was dismissive of all the flak that the Indian team copped taking a dig at critics for "firing blanks while sitting million miles away".
India's out-of-favour seniors Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag have been omitted from the Board of Control for Cricket in India's contracted players' list for 2013-14. The retiring Sachin Tendulkar, captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin are the five players in Grade 'A', and will pocket Rs 1 crore for the 2013-14 season.
