Persistent light rain washed out the first session of the fifth day of the final Test between Australia and India at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Monday.

The lunch break was taken as scheduled at 12.30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) with the covers still on the wicket.

India need only a draw to win the four-match series, their first such triumph in Australia.

If the weather allows, Australia will resume their second innings on six without loss, still 316 runs behind India's first innings 622-7 declared, after the tourists enforced the follow-on on the rain-disrupted fourth day.