India Aim To Pass Stern Test Against Left-Arm Pace In Series Decider


It’s a battle between two of the best One-Day Sides in the world and hence it’s no surprise that when India and Australia are competing in a three-match ODI series, the winner of the series will only be known after the decider. Even though both teams have a star-studded batting line up, the series has been dominated by bowlers so far except for the Australian run chase in the second ODI in Visakhapatnam where they got past the Men in Blue’s total of 111 in just 11 overs.

Believe it or not, the series is happening on Indian surfaced and yet on two successive occasions, the team batting first has failed to cross the 200-run mark. Mitchell Starc has been in sensational form this series, causing trouble to India’s right-handed batters laced batting order and India might look to experiment with their top-order.

India do not have too many ODIs at home before the World Cup later this year and so is the case with Australia who may likely tour India in October to get used to prepare for the marquee event and would look to see this match as a preparation for that bigger event.

The form of Suryakumar Yadav has raised some eyebrows but he is likely to get the nod in this final ODI. For Australia, even though the opening partnership of Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head has been a successful one, David Warner will walk in and so will Glenn Maxwell if he is fit for the match.

The team winning the toss might continue to look to bowl first at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai but 13 of the 22 ODIs here have been won by the team batting first. This is another one of those surfaces which are not known to be high-scoring but both teams would want their batters to come good in this match, especially India who will be up for a Test once again against Mitchell Starc & Co.

Probable XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav/Washington Sundar, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

Australia: David Warner, Travis Head, Steven Smith (captain), Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott/Ashton Agar/Nathan Ellis, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa