Published: Mar 13, 2019, 01:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 13, 2019, 01:07 PM (IST)
Under overcast skies, Australia skipper Aaron Finch has has won the toss and opted to bat versus India in the winner-takes-all fifth ODI at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Finch termed the Kotla surface as a “dry” one but didn’t choose to read too much into the past matches at the venue.
The allrounder Marcus Stoinis came through a training session yesterday to give Australia a selection dilemma, and the management opted to play him and drop Shaun Marsh. Jason Behrendorff was swapped for Nathan Lyon. (UPDATES: INDIA vs AUSTRALIA, 5th ODI)
Virat Kohli said he would have opted to bat, but backed “the best chasing team in the world” to get whatever total Australia put up.
India dropped a spinner in Yuvzvendra Chahal for Mohammed Shami, meaning that he joins Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah as the third fast bowler. KL Rahul was dropped for Ravindra Jadeja in what Kohli said was the ideal XI India wanted for the World Cup. (READ: India’s last ODI before World Cup: What needs to be worked out)
From being up 2-0, India suddenly find themselves needing to play catch-up. History tells us that no team has ever come back from 0-2 to beat India in a series of five ODIs, and nor has any Australian side ever done that in a five-match series against any opposition. (READ: How many times have India won ODI series deciders?)
Teams:
India XI: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Australia XI: 1 Usman Khawaja, 2 Aaron Finch (capt), 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Peter Handscomb, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Ashton Turner, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Adam Zampa, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jhy Richardson
