B0$ (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey(w), Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Tanveer Sangha, Josh Hazlewood
B0$"Lush green outfield. 66m and 67m square boundaries, 79m hit down the ground," says Sanjay Manjrekar before he hands it over to Brad Haddin. "Beautiful covering of grass and it's very even. It's (surface) a lot harder than the previous games. The average first innings score is 311. I think there will be a lot more skid than spin," opines Brad Haddin.
B0$Conditions are much better here, looks like there’s good weather. Decent temperature as well, we’re just looking forward to this game. The breaks are more important from a mental perspective than a physical one. Very happy with how we played, almost everything we wanted to do we got it done. Gives us a chance for us to see what we want to do. Looks a bit dry, it’s going to play slightly better under lights, we wanted to chase anyway. Let's see if we can make use of the two new balls. Myself, Virat, Kuldeep are all back. From the last game, B1$Ishan is not well, he’s got viral fever so he misses out.
B0$We’re going to have a bat. Looks like a good wicket, not sure how it’ll change in the 100 overs. GOod to get game time for everyone, don’t want to go into a world cup cold. Results haven’t gone our way but good day to change that. Different conditions here but we’ve played a lot over here so no surprises. We’ve made five changes, Starc and Maxwell are back. Tanveer Sangha is making his debut.
B0$
There's a special guest at the venue! Cheteshwar Pujara is around and was seen greeting some of the players
B0$ On paper, this is the last ODI for these two teams before the all important World Cup. While they’ll still have a couple more warm-up games before the actual tournament, this game will serve as an opportunity to make sure everything is strapped in tight and bolted firmly in place. While the Indian team looks largely settled, there still are a couple of questions that remain unanswered and consequently, a couple of spots up for grabs. Most notably, this game will be a chance for Ravichandran Ashwin, who’s remarkably somehow found himself back in the fray just before another World Cup, to make sure he books his tickets to the grand tournament as a player. There’s also a middle-order slot up for grabs with three different players, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan vying for it and a solid performance in today’s game may go a long way in tilting the odds in their favor. India’s senior stalwarts are expected to return for this game and they’ll be looking to field an XI that’s as close to the one they’ll want to field in the World Cup. For Australia, it’s one final opportunity to get some vital preparation in these conditions. Stick around then, toss and teams coming your way shortly.
B0$
India go into their last game ahead of the home ODI World Cup with several boxes ticked over the past week. This final fixture was meant to serve as a dress rehearsal for their first World Cup game against Australia on October 8 in Chennai, but they go into it with a severely depleted squad. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are back though, and will have India's first-ever ODI series whitewash against Australia on their agenda while adding to their momentum on the road to the showpiece event.
Australia, one of the favourites for the World Cup, have had a contrasting run of form. They arrived in India at the back after losing three successive ODIs against South Africa and have proceeded to add two more to the defeats column. Sean Abbott reckoned Australia's dismal show in India had been down to lack of execution despite doing 'some right things' along the way.
Another defeat might still not mean much in the grander scheme of things as far as the World Cup is concerned for the five-time champions, but a win on Wednesday in Rajkot will do a world of good to the morale before they move to another daunting venue - Chennai - for their opener.
B1$ India vs Australia, 3rd ODI, September 27, 13:30 IST
B2$ Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot
B3$ More runs, no rains. A sunny day with temperatures touching 35 degrees Celsius is expected. The flat deck at the venue should aid batters again. In four out of the six ODI innings at the venue, the 300-mark has been breached. The last ODI there in January 2020 - incidentally between India and Australia - saw the hosts score 340 and the visitors respond with 304.
B4$
B5$ While Rohit returns to lead the team, he revealed that he has just 13 players to pick from. India are depleted through a combination of resting players, a few of them going home due to personal reasons and an injury. Rohit also said that a viral fever is going around in the squad and the aim was to keep them fit and ready for the World Cup.
India will be without Mohammed Shami, Shardul Thakur and Hardik Pandya, who have all returned home, while Axar Patel is out injured and Shubman Gill has been rested. This means Rohit in reality has just 12 players to pick from.
B7$ The visitors will have their share of returnees with regular skipper Pat Cummins coming back as well as left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc. Glenn Maxwell could be available too.
B6$ David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa
B9$
- Rohit Sharma averages 59.23 against Australia in ODIs with 8 fifties and 8 hundreds against this opposition
- Since 2022, Mohammed Siraj has 32 PowerPlay wickets in the format, at an incredible economy rate of 4.16 in this phase.
B10$
"Ashwin, he's got the class, the experience of playing the sport and handling the pressure. Just that he hasn't played ODIs in the last year or so. You cannot take away the class or experience that the individual has over the years and in the last couple of games we saw how well he bowled. He's got a lot of variations up his sleeve. In case there is a chance, obviously we can look at a lot of things. Hopefully the way things are at this point it does well for us because we have all the back-ups and everything ready. We've given them enough game time. A lot of time in the middle as well so pretty much happy with how things have panned out in the last couple of weeks." - B11$
"Obviously, leading into the World Cup, it is not a position we want to be in but plenty to play for tomorrow - what the make-up of our team looks like, what we want to take into our World Cup campaign." - B12$
B0$ Squad: Matthew Short, David Warner, Steven Smith(c), Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey(w), Cameron Green, Sean Abbott, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Tanveer Sangha, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh
India
Australia
