Is Aaron Finch playing: Why is Marcus Stoinis not playing today’s 3rd T20I between Australia and India?

Dixit Bhargav | 08/12/2020
Is Aaron Finch playing: Why is Marcus Stoinis not playing today's 3rd T20I between Australia and India?

Marcus Stoinis not playing: The Australian all-rounder hasn’t been included in their Playing XI for the last T20I in Sydney.

During the third T20I of the ongoing India’s tour of Australia in Sydney, India captain Virat Kohli has won the toss and chose to field for the second consecutive time in this series.

“We are going to bowl. Shorter boundaries and we had a good game last time and for the bowling line-up as well we wanted to be more professional and test ourselves.

“It’s been a really good year for us in terms of T20 cricket, if we keep staying ahead of the opposition, and as a group we want to make sure we keep getting those results and win games of cricket. No changes,” Kohli told Fox Sports at the toss.

Why is Marcus Stoinis not playing not playing today’s 3rd T20I between Australia and India?

In an important development for the hosts, regular captain Aaron Finch has recovered from a glute strain to take the field at the Sydney Cricket ground today. Finch, 34, revealed that he too wanted to field first but his team will “give it all” after being asked to bat first by the visiting captain.

“We would have bowled first as well. It’s a used wicket and hopefully we’ll bat well tonight. We did see a bit of turn in the last game and expect the spinners to play key role in the middle overs. Only one change. I come in and [Marcus] Stoinis is out. He’s got a bit of niggle.

“It’s a long summer ahead and don’t want to take any chances and blow it up. No-balls are something that’s killed us over the last few games and we want to control that going forward. Somewhere around 190 is what we are after and you got to be careful as this is a tough ground to defend. We gonna give it all tonight,” Finch told Fox Sports at the toss.

With stand-in captain in the second T20I Matthew Wade scoring a quickfire half-century at the top, the Australian fans can expect D’Arcy Short to bat in the lower middle-order for the hosts would want to make optimum use of Wade’s form.

Post Edited By: Dixit Bhargav
Aaron Finch Australia India India tour of Australia 2020-21 Marcus Stoinis

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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