Aaron Finch & Co. will enter into the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi with a lot of confidence against India. One has to credit them for leveling the series from the position of 0-2 in the series. Since the win in the Mohali ODI, the Aussies are riding high on the confidence. However, the men in blue never see this coming, especially being favorites for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019.

However, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli also acknowledged that his team has been served two wake-up calls at Mohali. The team has been sloppy on the field and apart from that there are some question marks remain over the identity of the No.4 (yes, still!) and the strongest bowling composition is still to be determined. Thankfully, the Indian opener, Shikhar Dhawan’s return to form in Mohali pruned that list by one.

Ahead of this series, Virat said that performances in the IPL will not influence selection for the World Cup team. At face value, that statement leaves India with this one ODI to create a mental pecking order. As now they have to decide who to go with between KL Rahul or Ambati Rayudu and between Rishabh Pant or Dinesh Karthik.

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India didn’t get to see Rahul in Mohali given the openers had put on 193 and those following had to veer away from templates. He also batted at 3, a move that could have wider ramifications to the team’s batting balance. He is likely to get another game to stake his claim considering the man he replaced, Ambati Rayudu, hasn’t exactly painted himself in glory. Similarly, Dinesh Karthik could find his stocks rising without playing if Pant endures another scratchy match. The latter will have to pull up his socks behind the stumps and reinforce his standing as a dynamic middle-order batsman.

Bowling coach Bharat Arun confirmed that Mohammed Shami was fully fit. However, the bowling attack should get a dew allowance for its failings in Mohali and stay unchanged.

On the other hand, for Australia, Marcus Stoinis, who fractured his thumb, will not play. Alex Carey will hold on to his keeping gloves for the time being. Pat Cummins seemed tired and bowled an uncharacteristically loose first spell at Mohali despite ending with a five-fer. The workload of his demanding summer was finally showing. Finch had promised rest for his spearhead in Hyderabad, but the prospect of a series win might just force him to defer that call.

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Probables XIs:

India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Turner, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Jason Behrendorff/Nathan Lyon

Some of the important stats ahead of the game:

• If India loses the series, it will be their first ODI series defeat at home since losing 3-2 to South Africa in October 2015.
• There have been only four previous instances of a team winning a series after being 0-2 down: SA vs Pak in 2003, Ban vs Zim in 2005, Pak vs Ind in 2005 and SA vs Eng in 2016.
• Rohit Sharma needs 46 more runs to the milestone of 8000 runs. If he gets there in his next innings, he will be the joint third fastest to the landmark.