The third One-Day International between India and
Australia was supposed to serve as a practise for the teams’ World Cup opener,
but some of the major players won’t be present on Wednesday.
Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Axar
Patel, and Mohammed Shami won’t be playing for India. Axar’s participation was
always contingent on his physical condition; he strained his left quadriceps
during the Asia Cup and hasn’t fully recovered. However, Kuldeep Yadav, Virat
Kohli, and Rohit Sharma have joined the team. Therefore, there will still be a
tonne of big names performing.
With Pat Cummins back as captain, Australia is
probably at full strength. Both Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Starc, who missed
the South Africa series earlier this month and the first two games here as
well, trained on Tuesday and are expected to play tomorrow.
In ODIs against India, Australia will be attempting to
escape what may be their first-ever whitewash despite already losing the
series. A stronger bowling effort may be the key to achieving that and breaking
their five-match losing streak. They have let up 338, 416, 315, and 399 in four
of their last five games.
When he was called up for this series, R Ashwin had
only appeared in two ODIs in the previous six years. At that time, Ashwin was
not playing in ODIs, but he was frequently playing in Tests and T20s, as noted
by both captain Rohit and chief selector Ajit Agarkar. As evidence, Ashwin
recorded 1 for 47 at Mohali and 3 for 41 in the opening two ODIs. If Axar is
unable to recover in time for the World Cup, a backup is prepared by the team’s
management.
Even before this series started, Australia’s death
bowling was being scrutinised. Their death-overs economy this year is 9.48, the
poorest of any team, after they gave up 103 in the final ten overs of the
second ODI in Indore. Only Afghanistan (20.95) among Full Members has a lower
strike rate than their 20.60 when it comes to wickets taken in this round. Australia
will be anticipating some solace from Starc’s return.