India will face Australia in the third Test match at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore from Friday onwards. The home team took an impregnable lead of 2-0 in the series after winning the second Test by six wickets and thus they have already retained the Border-Gavaskar series.
India has been dominant, especially with the ball as Australia have failed to score 300 runs in an innings in the series. Furthermore, the visitors are jolted by injury woes as David Warner and Josh Hazlewood have been ruled out of the remaining two matches.
Moreover, Pat Cummins has returned home to be with his ailing mother and Steven Smith will lead in his absence. This means Mitchell Starc and all-rounder Cameron Green could return to the final XI. Australia will have to come up with a better batting show as they were folded for 113 runs in the second innings at Delhi.
On the other hand, Shubman Gill could replace KL Rahul, who has been dropped as the vice-captain of the team. However, head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rahul Dravid have put their weight behind the experienced opener and it will be interesting to note the selection call.
Meanwhile, India’s spin trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel have been relentless, not only with the ball but also with the bat.
Match Prediction: India will once again start as favorites against Australia.
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia: Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith ©, Mitchell Starc, Matt Kunhemann.
