'Agar's inclusion not certain in Sydney Test'

Melbourne, Dec 31 (IANS) Australia coach Darren Lehmann has said spinner Ashton Agar's inclusion in the 13-man squad for the fourth Test against India at Sydney doesn't guarantee his place in the final 11, and stressed the nature of the pitch would determine which way the attack would be balanced.
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The left-arm tweaker was called in the squad for the final Test of the four-match series at Sydney, starting Jan 6.

“(Agar is a) left-arm spinner who will take it away from the right-handers. It depends what (pitch) we'll get in Sydney. We haven't been there so we'll have to wait and see. But traditionally it spins, last year it seamed so it just gives us some cover really," he said Tuesday.

“Basically if it spins and we want two options for the captain, then we'll have to work out what we do with the bowling attack from there. We've got to get 20 wickets, that's the key to winning games.”

Australia's belated declaration in their second innings came in for criticism but Lehmann confirmed the tactic nullified India's chances of victory.

“One thing we do know is they're a very good side and they were certainly going to go out there and chase that, and Steven was very confident they would go for it, and I agreed with him,” he added.

“They obviously changed the batting order to do that. They've played aggressive cricket, we've driven the game."

Lehmann also pointed out India's inability to take 20 wickets in the series so far and hoped the trend would continue in the series-ending Sydney Test.

“I don't think they've taken 20 wickets in a Test match yet in the series, hopefully that stays the same from our point of view. At the end of the day we needed probably 20-30 (more) overs,” he concluded.