India captain Rohit Sharma has won the toss and chose to bat in the third Test of the ongoing Australia’s tour of India in Indore. Winning the toss for the first time in the series, Sharma has done exactly what Australia captain Pat Cummins had done in the first two matches in Nagpur and Delhi respectively.
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In spite of coming on the back of consecutive Test wins, India have made a couple of changes to their Playing XI for this match. Another commonality between the two teams is that the visitors have also made two changes to their Playing XI today.
“We will have a bat first. It is a pretty good dressing room and like you [commentator Ravi Shastri] said, the morale is high. The guys are confident about their skills which is a good thing moving forward,” Sharma told Star Sports Network at the toss.
Australia, meanwhile, are being led by stand-in captain Steven Smith at the Holkar stadium. “Looks pretty dry and no surprises Rohit [Sharma] decided to bat first. Hopefully, we can execute our skills early and out the Indian batters under pressure,” Smith told Star Sports Network at the toss.
Why is Mohammed Shami not playing today vs Australia?
The home team has left out opening batter KL Rahul and fast bowler Mohammed Shami. Batter Shubman Gill and fast bowler Umesh Yadav have been included as like-for-like replacements for Rahul and Shami.
Sacked as vice-captain for the last two matches, Rahul was under the scanner after not even touching the 25-run mark in his last 10 Test innings. With an in-form batter in Shubman Gill warming the bench, India have made the right decision but not extending his waiting period especially after considering the fact that he had scored a century in his penultimate Test.
Shami, on the other hand, has been rested under the workload management program. Much like Gill, Yadav had also last played a Test during the tour of Bangladesh last year.
As far as the visitors are concerned, all-rounder Cameron Green and fast bowler Mitchell Starc have recovered from respective finger injuries to replace opening batter David Warner and Cummins in the Playing XI. While Warner has returned home due to an elbow fracture, Cummins is at home catering to his ailing mother.
