Toss Australia chose to bowl vs India
In hot and humid Indore, it was Australia who won the toss and chose to bowl, with stand-in captain Steven Smith saying he’d “fancy chasing” with dew potentially playing a part. Smith also said that regular captain Pat Cummins was being rested, as were Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis.
Alex Carey and Josh Hazlewood came into the XI, along with left-arm seamer Spencer Johnson, who was on ODI debut. Johnson has previously been described as someone who could be a match-winner in the mould of Mitchell Starc.
Jasprit Bumrah has been given leave from India duty to visit his family, and that means India bring in Prasidh Krishna. That was the only change for the hosts, with Mohammed Siraj rested again.
Australia are looking to avoid a fifth-straight ODI defeat and also hope to stay alive in the series with a win. In that regard, Smith said that the team was attempting to balance winning with trying out new combinations leading up to the ODI World Cup. Rahul said that for India, who became No. 1 in the world in all three formats after the Mohali victory, the challenge would be to put up enough runs to defend despite the conditions.
Indore is traditionally a high-scoring venue with small dimensions. In the previous ODI played here, in January 2023, India scored 385 in 50 overs at 7.7 runs per over. This pitch is expected to be another belter.
India: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Shreyas Iyer, 4 KL Rahul (capt & wk), 5 Ishan Kishan, 6 Suryakumar Yadav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Mohammed Shami, 10 Prasidh Krishna
Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Matt Short, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Josh Inglis, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Cameron Green, 8 Sean Abbott, 9 Adam Zampa, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Spencer Johnson
Source: ESPN Crickinfo
