Ind vs Aus 3rd Test: Playing 11 and Toss Updates: After a lengthy break, the third Test of the four-match series between Team India and Australia gets underway today at Holkar Stadium in Indore. Both teams had nine days off following the second Test in Delhi, which India won by six wickets to take a 2-0 series lead and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Here, we discuss the toss updates and the announced Playing 11 of India and Australia for 3rd test.
Pat Cummins, the regular Australian Skipper was unable to play the 3rd test due to family issues. In his absence, Steven Smith has taken the charge. Josh Hazelwood, Aston Agar, and David Warner have returned back to home and have been ruled out of the series.
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Ind vs Aus 3rd Test: Toss update
India Won the Toss for the first time in the series and chose to bat first. Shubman Gill comes in for KL Rahul and Umesh Yadav comes in for Umesh Yadav.
Rohit said: “We will have a bat first. It is a pretty good dressing room and like you said the morale is high. The guys are confident about their skills which is a good thing moving forward. We have played a lot of cricket (here) but this one (surface) is slightly different.”
A couple of changes on the visitors’ side. Mitchell Starc comes in for Cummins and Cam Green comes in for Warner.
Australian captain Steven Smith said, “Looks pretty dry, and no surprise Rohit decided to bat first. Hopefully, we can execute our skills early and out the Indian batters under pressure. It (break) came in at a good time for us, obviously disappointing how we ended the last Test match and the guys have had time to reflect, rest and get back into preparation. Just stick to our methods for longer periods, we went away from it especially in the second innings in the last game.”
Ind vs Aus 3rd Test: Playing 11s
India- Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Australia- Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann
Ind vs Aus 3rd test: Pitch Report
The pitches at the Holkar Cricket Stadium are normally good for batting in the shorter format, yet as is the case with most venues in the subcontinent, they get better for spinners as the Test match goes on.
The pitch used in this match is a Black Soil pitch and a bit of grass is left in the middle. The pitch is hard at the center and a bit lose towards the ends. This wicket looks similar to the ones we saw in the first two Test matches. We are going to see a lot of spin. This is a very overcooked wicket, it is dry and has started to crumble.
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