Australia bat, India rest 'best death bowlers'

Agarkar: India should look to play six bowlers (1:25)

With the series won, India could try and experiment in the remaining ODIs while Australia might look to rest few bowlers as well (1:25)

Toss Australia chose to bat v India
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The coin landed flat on the pitch and didn’t flip even once, which is certainly not how the relaid Bangalore pitch plays nowadays. The par score in IPL has reduced by close to 50 runs, and the dryness of the surface perhaps explained why Steven Smith chose to bat after winning the toss. He reported two changes: Matthew Wade returned at the expense of the misfiring Glenn Maxwell, and Adam Zampa replaced the injured Ashton Agar

With the series in the bag and looking for a tenth straight win – a feat India have never managed in ODIs – Virat Kohli did not mind fiddling with his winning combination. By now you might have reason to believe Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav had become Test specialist bowlers, but they were back in the XI to replace what Smith termed as the best death-bowling duo in the world: Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Left-arm wristpinner Kuldeep Yadav also earned a rest, which gave Axar Patel a chance to come back after a warm-up injury he suffered on the eve of the series.

Kohli said he didn’t mind the result at the toss though he, too, would have preferred to bat first. He said the Bangalore pitch tended to settle down under lights. As usual in Bangalore, the weather was overcast, which in theory should help sides batting last, but Smith and Co. discovered the opposite in the opening game of the series.

Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Peter Handscomb, 5 Travis Head, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Adam Zampa

India 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 MS Dhoni (wk), 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Umesh Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammed Shami

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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