Big picture: India eye early series wrap
Given the puzzling scheduling of this series, against an opponent with a core of exhausted players, who were part of an ODI World Cup-winning squad, it’s probably not surprising that India are on the brink of already wrapping up the series.
They will hope to continue a strong start to their T20 World Cup preparations.
Australia LLWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
India WWWWW
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With the chance to claim the series, India are likely to not make any changes. Ishan Kishan, who was initially a surprising choice at No. 3 instead of opening, has excelled with consecutive half-centuries. If there is swing around then Shivam Dube could be an option although spinners Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi were excellent in the second T20I. Left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh, who has taken just 1 for 87 from eight overs, could be squeezed out.
India (probable): 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Mukesh Kumar
Australia (probable): 1 Steven Smith, 2 Matthew Short, 3 Josh Inglis, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Wade (capt, wk), 8 Adam Zampa, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Jason Behrendorff/Sean Abbott, 11 Tanveer Sangha
There is no forecast of rain, but humid conditions are expected on Tuesday with dew likely to play a factor during the match.
“One of the things we had in our planning coming into this series was to have a look at Steve [Smith] up the top. And we’ve had a chance to do that now and again. We’ve been extremely happy with that intent that he’s shown with the bat.”
Australia stand-in coach Andre Borovec is happy with Smith the opener