Either way,Khawaja’s overnight recovery and level of discomfort when trying to bat on the final morning will play a significant part in his participation:as it stands he will not be able to bat until after lunch. He is likely to try how the leg feels by batting in the nets before play on day five.
In Khawaja’s stead,the left-arm spinnerMatt Kuhnemann gamely volunteered to open with Travis Head,surviving six overs to the close after making just three runs for the series so far.
As Australia’s outstanding batter of this series and indeed the past 15 months,Khawaja is likely to be critical to the team’s hopes of scrounging out one final day’s batting from the Test series to avoid going down 3-1 and handing India an unencumbered passage to the World Test Championship final.
A drawn match in Ahmedabad would mean India are not confirmed in the final until Sri Lanka can no longer win their concurrent series against New Zealand by a margin of two matches to nil.
Wicketkeeper Alex Carey said the final day of the series would be one more challenge for the Australians,who have performed resiliently to regather themselves after hefty defeats in the opening two Tests in Nagpur and Delhi.