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Ishan Kishan has been rested from the third ODI of the three-match between India and Australia with an illness.
Shubman Gill, Shardul Thakur, and Axar Patel had not travelled with the Indian team for the third ODI between the sides, at Rajkot. India have rested Gill and Thakur, while Axar is yet to recover from his injury. The BCCI did not pick Hardik Pandya either.
With Ruturaj Gaikwad also having left, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan were set to open batting, but Kishan was not part of the team list. Soon after the toss, the BCCI confirmed that he “was unavailable for selection due to an illness”.
It will be interesting to see who among Virat Kohli, who returned to the XI for this match, and KL Rahul opens batting. A bonafide Test opener, Rahul has been batting in the middle order for some time.
Kohli had debuted as an ODI opener, and opened batting with Shikhar Dhawan when Rohit was injured during an ODI in Bangladesh last December. Rahul batted at No.5.
To boost the squad, the BCCI summoned four Saurashtra cricketers – Dharmendrasinh Jadeja, Prerak Mankad, Vishwaraj Jadeja, and Harvik Desai – to “support the team for drinks and fielding throughout the match”. Follow the match here.
For Australia, captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Glenn Maxwell all returned to the XI, though they rested Adam Zampa for Tanveer Sangha. Cummins won the toss and opted to bat.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc & wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Cam Green, Mitchell Starc, Tanveer Sangha, Josh Hazlewood
