The Adelaide Oval plays host to the second match between India and Australia – a venue where the visitors are unbeaten in their last five ODI appearances. Currently Australia hold a one-nil lead over India as the rain-affected tie in Perth belonged to the hosts.
Alex Carey and Adam Zampa are back in the mix after missing the first ODI – Carey to play to for South Australia in the Sheffield Shield as part of his Ashes fine-tuning and Zampa for family reasons. Meanwhile, Josh Inglis is ready to join the squad in Sydney ahead of the third ODI after recovering from a calf strain.
Matthew Kuhnemann will head home after taking two crucial wickets in the series opener even though Nitish Reddy tarnished his death-bowling figures, but he’ll be back in no time for the start of the T20 series in Canberra. Carey’s return means NSW gloveman Josh Philippe could be elbowed out of the side despite taking a few sharp catches and scoring 37 to help Australia to a seven-wicket win in the shortened series opener.
Replacing Cameron Green, Labuschagne recently returned to the ODI mix on the back of consistent domestic performances as two of his four centuries for his domestic side Queensland have materialized in the 50-over format. The top-order batter was overlooked earlier after he returned scores of 1 and 1 in the home ODIs against South Africa in August.
India’s bouncebackability will be on test after their first defeat in nine one-day internationals on Sunday as they enter a new era under recently appointed ODI captain Shubman Gill. Their lynchpins Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma flopped in the first ODI, as did their entire top four, and they’ll be looking forward to Adelaide Oval’s traditionally anodyne surface.
Will they fancy playing the dangerous left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav in Adelaide where the boundaries are shorter square or continue with the finger spin of left-armer Axar Patel and right-armer Washington Sundar who between them bagged two of the three Australian wickets to fall in the first ODI. Express quick Prasidh Krishna is also in the squad and could be a threat with the new ball up against the Aussies’ formidable opening pair of Mitch Marsh and Travis Head.
