India vs Australia, 3rd ODI Preview: Must Win Game for Visitors

With the lead of 2-0 in the series, Indian team looks confident enough to go in an encounter and lock the horns with Australian team & seal the series tomorrow in Indore.

India and Australia are all set to play the third match of the series tomorrow in Indore’s Holkar cricket stadium. India will look to seal the series tomorrow only whereas it’s a must-win encounter for Australia. Rain might play spoilsport in 3^rd match but both the teams and fans will expect a full fledged game tomorrow in Indore. India, with the lead of 2-0 will enter the contest with crammed confidence, on the other hand Australia is still struggling to find a winning combination.

India won the last match by 50 runs in Kolkata with their all round bowling performance. Indian bowlers have made a great impact so far in the series. Kohli’s decision of batting first in the both the games shows the immense trust he has in his bowlers to defend any total, which has been completely justified by the Indian bowling lineup. In both the matches, pacers have provided an early breakthrough and have given the desired start while spinners, on the other hand, have also not made us feel the absence of leading spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Spinners, Chahal and Kuldeep have been successfully taking wickets for India at regular intervals. Both the spinners have not let Aussies figure out how to tackle them, Kuldeep Yadav specially with his hat-trick in the last match, has constantly triggered Aus batsmen to play uneasy shots.

While India’s bowling has been on top, the first two ODIs have witnessed few slacks in the Indian batting line up, consecutive average scores of below 300 shows how heavily our batting is dependent on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, with no Shikhar Dhawan in the side. Manish Pandey, with the two back to back single digit scores has failed to grab the opportunities he’s been given in the absence of one full fledged member of the team, Dhawan. Kedar Jadhav as well, has fizzled to convert his starts into impacting knocks. Virat Kohli’s sumptuous knock of 92 runs in the second ODI rescued India but Indian dressing room will be worried about consecutive middle order failure. Indian batting order is maybe one 300 plus sore away to regain confidence and batting touch.

Australia, on the other hand, has looked completely muggle, they have missed on opportunities so many times. The key challenge in front of Australian batsmen will be to counter spin attack of India which has caused them maximum damage. With skipper Steve Smith and opener David Warner, the only two experienced batters, Australian batting lineup has looked blunt to face tough questions posted by Indian bowlers. Australia will have to come up with his best eleven to win this do or die game of the series.

India Squad: Virat Kohli(c), Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami

Australia Squad: David Warner, Steven Smith(c), Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner, Matthew Wade, Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson, Peter Handscomb