Addressing the elephant in the room right away, one has to admit that Australia hasn’t shown up in the series. Twice in two games now, the Kangaroos have been guilty of throwing away matches from solid positions and allowing India to make comebacks, each time. With the series on the line now, it’s now or never for the visitors. A loss at Indore will all but seal the series in India’s favour, and it’s time for the Australians, to show up finally.
For India, only one aspect remains a worry, and that is the ill-fated number four position. All candidates have been guilty of messing up their opportunities and twice in succession now, Manish Pandey has been dismissed for single digits.
With all eyes set on Sunday, the series could well be sealed at Indore, an otherwise happy hunting ground for the men in blue. Below, we have a look at the predicted Indian XI for the third ODI.
- Ajinkya Rahane:
Fresh from a fluent half-century where his solid start drove India off, Ajinkya Rahane will be looking forward to another good knock. This year has been the breakthrough year for this Mumbai batsman, as he has rediscovered his real sense as an ODI batsman. The role of the third opener has suited him quite well, and another solid show would be a further statement of that.
- Rohit Sharma:
Considering his outstanding feats against Australia in the past, this series so far has been a dampener for Rohit Sharma. In both games, he got himself in and took his time, before eventually throwing it away. In the second game though, he was caught quite well by Nathan Coulter Nile off his bowling. Known to be a batsman’s paradise, Indore could witness a special knock from Rohit Sharma.
- Virat Kohli (c):
Stats might not say so, but Kohli’s innings of 92 the other day were among his finest and more mature knocks. The application asserted by Kohli during that innings at Kolkata on a testing track stood out as thanks to his show alone, India could get to a defendable total. The captain will now look to play an innings typical associated with him, and the Australians better watch out.
- KL Rahul:
Given that the squad was named for the first three ODI’s only initially, one can expect KL Rahul making his way back into the team for the underperforming Manish Pandey. If given a chance, Rahul will have to make the innings count at all given costs as a good show could see him being retained for the last couple of games.
- MS Dhoni (wk):
Dhoni witnessed a rare failure at Kolkata as he was undone by the two-paced nature of the wicket. His record at Indore is superb indeed, as a couple of years ago on this very ground he was named the Man of the Match against South Africa for his knock of 92. It’s time that Dhoni bats higher up the order for the team’s cause, and ideally at 5.
- Kedar Jadhav:
In both games of this series so far, the short but destructive Kedar Jadhav has gotten off to strong starts. On both occasions though, he has wasted his starts by not converting it into big scores. Ideally, Kedar must bat at 6, as he has been allotted as the side’s finisher and batting him at 5 disrupts the team’s composition.
- Hardik Pandya:
On a sluggish surface, Pandya had an off day with the bat as he struggled to time the ball towards the end of the innings. With the ball though, despite being taken for runs early on by Travis Head and Steven Smith, Pandya didn’t lose his cool. He came back, to dismiss Smith and struck at the vital moment to hand India the momentum.
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar:
The first spell bowled by Kumar rolled back the years and reminded everyone of Kumar’s early days when he bamboozled even the classiest of batsmen with his swing. Dismissing both openers with his guile, Kumar’s show with the new ball set up the win for India, and he conceded just nine runs in his six overs. Simply fantastic to say the least.
- Kuldeep Yadav:
The hattrick man of the previous ODI would be extremely high on confidence as he devastated the Australians with his sheer class and accuracy. The best thing to have happened to the Indian team in 2017, Kuldeep has cemented his spot as India’s primary spinner in the shorter forms now.
- Jasprit Bumrah:
Bumrah continues to impress on every occasion he bowls, and his development into a mighty fine new ball bowler has been a heartening sight. With the new ball in his hand, Bumrah has posed several problems for the opposition’s top order, and another decent show is expected from him
- Yuzvendra Chahal:
During the chase, Australia were sailing comfortably before Chahal sent back the well-set southpaw Travis Head. But it was him outfoxing and outclassing Glenn Maxwell which helped India win the game. He isn’t afraid to bowl in the strengths of the batsmen, and this approach from him makes the leg-spinner an absolute champion.