India will welcome back their superstar players for the third and final ODI against Australia in Rajkot on Wednesday (September 27). The date is also the deadline for the teams to announce their final squads (with or without changes) for the upcoming ODI World Cup in India. The Men in Blue have already won the series with wins in the first two ODIs and will be keen on whitewashing the five-time champions this time.
The hosts have already decided to rest Shubman Gill and Shardul Thakur while Axar Patel has been ruled out of this game too with an injury. However, with key players including skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli returning to the playing XI, there are bound to be a lot of changes. Rohit will certainly go back to the opening slot replacing Gill and will open with Ruturaj Gaikwad who will soon be flying to Hangzhou to lead India in the Asian Games.
Kohli wil bat at number with Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul moving a slot down in the line up. Clearly, with Iyer fit, there is no space for both Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav. Kishan couldn't repeat his Asia Cup heroics in the two matches against the Aussies but Surya could be benched despite scoring a stunning 72 off 37 balls in the previous game.
Hardik Pandya will take back his number six slot while unless rested by the management, Ravindra Jadeja is certain to bat next. The bowling attack also has a lot of questions to answer with Jasprit Bumah and Kuldeep Yadav returning. Both of them will surely be back in the playing XI and it remains to be seen if Shami is benched or Prasidh Krishna. It will also be interesting to see if Mohammed Siraj will be back after being rested earlier in the series.
India probable XI: Rohit Sharma (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (WK), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj/Mohammed Shami
