Toss Australia chose to bowl vs India
Mitchell Marsh wore a huge smile on his face as he won yet another toss at the MCG and elected to bowl on an overcast evening after the pitch had spent most of the day under covers following a few small showers.
Australia made one change from the side that was selected for game one with Matthew Short returning from a minor surgery on the finger laceration he suffered in the second ODI in Adelaide. He replaced Josh Philippe at No. 7. Short had a long hit in the nets 90 minutes before the toss and looked untroubled having consulted Australia’s team doctor upon leaving his net session.
India named an unchanged side from the one selected for the opening T20I in Canberra.
There had been a small amount of light rain in Melbourne on Friday and it has remained overcast throughout the day. The pitch has been under covers for most of the day. But there is unlikely to be any rain during the evening.
India will receive huge support again with 90,000 people expected, most of which will be supporting the visitors.
A commemoration was held pre-match for Melbourne teenager Ben Austin, who passed away on Thursday after a cricket accident earlier this week. A moment’s silence was held prior to the start of the match with Austin’s image displayed on the screen and his favourite song played after the silence. Both teams are wearing black armbands in remembrance and in honour of Ben’s family, friends and team-mates.
Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Tim David, 5 Mitch Owen, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Matthew Short, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Matt Kuhnemann, 11 Josh Hazlewood
India: 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Harshit Rana, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
