Toss India opt to bowl vs Australia
Suryakumar Yadav gave a double fist pump after the coin finally fell India’s way and elected to bowl first in the third T20I in Hobart after making three changes to the side that lost in Melbourne.
India have included Jitesh Sharma to keep wicket in place of Sanju Samson, while Washington Sundar comes in for Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh replaces Harshit Rana in the attack despite the batting being the major issue in Melbourne.Glenn Maxwell has not been passed fit to play by Australia despite joining the squad for this third match in Hobart. He had a hit in the nets ahead of the second T20I in Melbourne and looked to have no issues with his previously fractured wrist. It is understood batting is not an issue but he was not confident in throwing or catching yet. Australia made the conservative decision to leave him out and give him two more training sessions ahead of the fourth T20I on the Gold Coast on Thursday. The hosts made just one change to their winning side from Melbourne with Sean Abbott replacing Josh Hazlewood who has left the squad to begin his Ashes preparation in the Sheffield Shield.
Jitesh will play his first T20I since January 2024 and is listed to bat at No.7 after Samson was elevated to No.3 in Melbourne.
India hope to level the five-match series after going 1-0 down on Friday after the first T20I in Canberra was washed out. It is a glorious clear evening in Hobart with the temperature reaching 27 degrees in the afternoon but it will cool down significantly throughout the game.
Australia: 1 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 2 Travis Head, 3 Josh Inglis (wk), 4 Tim David, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Mitchell Owen/Matthew Short, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Sean Abbott, 10 Nathan Ellis, 11 Matt Kuhnemann
India: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Axar Patel, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.
