With the fate of the Border–Gavaskar trophy already decided, both teams made two changes for the 4th test in Sydney, with Australia dropping Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh for Peter Handscomb and Marnus Labuschagne, whilst India recalled KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav for Rohit Sharma and Ishant Sharma.
India won the toss, and, deciding to bat first, suffered an early loss when Rahul was caught off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood in the second over for 9. However, they dominated most of the rest of the day, with Mayank Agarwal and Cheteshwar Pujara putting on 116 for the second wicket, before Agarwal, the more aggressive of the pair, who had struck 77, including 2 sixes and 7 fours, was caught by Mitchell Starc off the bowling of Nathan Lyon.
That brought captain Virat Kohli to the crease, and he added 54 with Pujara before he was caught behind off Hazlewood for 23. Aginkya Rahane was out in similar fashion, this time to the bowling of Starc for 23, but Pujara and Hanuma Vihari shared an unbeaten stand of 75, which saw their side through to stumps at 303 - 4. Vihari was unbeaten on 39, whilst Pujara was 139 not out, his third century of the series, and his 18th in all.
On Day Two, India piled further pressure on Australia as they continued to dominate with the bat. They lost Vihari early, caught by Labuschagne off the bowling of Lyon for 42, but Pujara and Risbah Pant continued to pile on the runs until Pujara’s long innings finally came to an end when he was caught and bowled by Lyon for 193, having struck 22 fours.
His dismissal brought no respite to Australia, however, as Ravindra Jadeja joined Pant in the middle, and the pair put on 204 for the seventh wicket, scoring at more than five an over as the runs flowed freely. Pant scored his second test century (the first by an Indian wicketkeeper in Australia), reaching his highest score in international cricket with 159 not out, which featured a six and 15 fours, whilst Jadeja’s 81, also included a six and 7 fours. When he was eventually bowled by Lyon, India declared on 622 – 7, leaving Australia a mammoth task just to save the match.
Marcus Lyon and Usman Khawaja reached the close on 24 not out, but with a deficit still of 598 runs, Australia’s batsmen had a lot of work to do on the third and fourth days of this test.
On the third day Harris and Khawaja continued to play with patience and determination until Khawaja was caught by Pujara off the bowling of Yadav for 27. Harris and Labuschagne then added 56 before Harris was bowled by Jadeja for 79, and then the same bowler had Shaun Marsh caught by Rahane for 8.
Three overs later, Labuschagne fell for 38, caught off the bowling of Mohammed Shami, before Travis Head and Peter Head shared a stand of 50. The partnership was broken when Head was caught and bowled by Yadav for 20, and then Yadav bowled Tim Paine for 5.
Handscomb and Pat Cummins added 38 and were happy to accept the offer of bad light as play ended early, with Australia on 238 – 6, still trailing by 386 on first innings, with 4 wickets remaining.
Day 4 was truncated by bad light and rain, but there was still time for Australia to be bowled out for 300. Resuming in the morning, Cummins was bowled by Shami off the sixth ball of the day for 25, and then Handscomb fell to Jasprit Bumrah for 37. Nathan Lyon was lbw to Yadav for a duck, but the last wicket pair of Starc and Hazlewood added 42, before Hazlewood gave Yadav another lbw, as he was out for 21, with Starc undefeated on 29. Yadav finished with 5 for 99.
India then invited Australia to follow-on, the first time in 30 years that the hosts had to do so on home soil. However, only 4 overs were possible, during which the Australian openers scored 6 runs, before the weather brought an early end to proceedings.
The final day was a complete washout, as persistent drizzle kept the covers on, before the match was called off in early afternoon.
Pujara was named man of the match and the series, for his three centuries.