India were 45 for one at stumps in their second innings, a lead of eight runs after trailing Australia by 37 on the first innings.
Irfan Pathan was handed the job of opening the batting with Virender Sehwag after Wasim Jaffer was left out.
Shane Warne said Australia cared too much about their image in Perth and lost the edge without their trademark aggression.
India made one change with paceman Zaheer Khan ruled out because of an injured heel and was replaced by Ishant Sharma.
Matthew Hayden completed 8,000 runs in 92 Tests -- 8003 runs at an average of 53.00. He is the fifth Australian player and the 18th in Test annals to have amassed 8000 or more runs.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test against India.
A league of this nature will be nothing more than a money-spinning machine, unless it has the added plus of throwing up domestic talent.
UEFA said it would replace the pitch at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille after Wednesday's final group E match between Italy and Ireland.
The International Cricket Council announced on Monday that Jamtha Stadium, Nagpur, has been given an official warning under the ICC Pitch Monitoring Process following the third Test between India and South Africa.
Virender Sehwag replaced Yousuf Pathan in the Indian side for the one-off Twenty20 international, while Murali Kartik came in for all-rounder Joginder Sharma.
The world champions, having already sealed the series 4-1, fielded an unchanged side after opener Matthew Hayden failed to recover fully from his hip injury.
'Baggy Green worship made me want to puke'
India made one change, bringing in leg-spinner Piyush Chawla in place of Munaf Patel for the first of the best of three finals.
After Hayden, Gambhir is perched at the second spot by accumulating 227 runs at 37.83 in the batsmen's list.
In major embarrassment for the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the International Cricket Council rated the track at the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground in Nagpur, on which the third Test between India and South Africa was played, as "poor", triggering a review of the performance of the pitch under the ICC Pitch Monitoring Process.
Brett Lee claimed the first hat-trick as Australia thrashed Bangladesh by nine wickets in a Super Eight game of the Twenty20 World Cup.
India recalled Virender Sehwag for Yuvraj Singh and dropped spinner Harbhajan Singh for paceman Irfan Pathan.
The India captain said his five-wicket haul on the opening day of the first Test against Australia is the best of his career.
The second Test against India starts in Adelaide on Friday.
Finding massive irregularity during "standard fraud checks", the White House has removed at least 85,000 signatures from an on-line petition which asked US President Barack Obama to cancel his planned meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi next month.
Australia's Phil Jaques will replace the retired Justin Langer in the first Test against Sri Lanka.
South African cricket captain AB de Villiers continued to script statistical history at the ongoing World Cup as he entered the top-10 of all-time scorers' list.
Team India has already started homework on how to face the world's best left-arm quick bowler Mitchell Starc as Australia come calling in two weeks' time.
The Aussies won the Group B match at the Twenty20 World Cup by 8 wickets and entered the Super Eight stage.
Australia beat New Zealand by four wickets in the warm-up match ahead of the Twenty20 World Cup.
In the ICC ODI team rankings, India remains in fifth place.
Unfortunately, the day chosen for the match was the actual day of Diwali and cricket starved Houstonians were in a dilemma about staying home with family and friends or going to watch their back-in-action cricket heroes.
The Kiwis scored a thrilling one-wicket win in the third and final one-day match of the Chappell-Hadlee series.
Veteran Jorge Lombi scored a hat-trick as Argentina beat New Zealand 3-2 to win the Champions Challenge men's hockey tournament.
Former world champion Valentino Rossi won the MotoGP at the Dutch Grand Prix after a 15 lap battle with overall leader Casey Stoner on Saturday.
New Zealand beat India 2-0 in the opening match of the Champions Challenge.
Matthew Hoggard took four wickets to reduce Australia to 312 for five on Day 3 of the Ashes Test.
A detailed statistical analysis of the four-match series.
Peter Nevill, who was retained as Australia's wicketkeeper ahead of first-choice Brad Haddin for the third Ashes Test, brushed aside rumours of disharmony and discontent in the camp.
West Indies brought back fast bowlers Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards in place of Marlon Samuels and Corey Collymore.
For those who have accepted without question the propaganda pedalled about Sourav Ganguly in recent years this will come as quite a surprise.
Rajneesh Gupta highlights all the important numbers of the Pakistan team from cricket World Cups.
Australia's senior cricketers are playing down suggestions they might retire en masse if they win back the Ashes.
England ended a run of nine straight losses to Australia with a stunning 92-run win.
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