After facing a 34-run defeat at Sydney, Team India will be locking horns with Australia at the Adelaide Oval in the second ODI on January 15 and look to bounce back in the three-match series. In the span of one week, the situation in Australian cricket has undergone a massive change. Suddenly, the batsmen look good and the bowlers, in the absence of a few rested players, are also stepping up.
On the other hand, the Indian team management has decided to go with Dinesh Karthik in place of Kedar Jadhav and that might be the only difficult selection call to be made ahead of the second ODI. The former has been in good form finishing games for India, but Jadhav has been a valuable addition to the team with the ball which might tempt the team management to opt for him. Ambati Rayudu’s suspected bowling has also favors Jadhav’s inclusion.
All eyes will once again be on MS Dhoni after his innings in the first ODI received mixed responses. A unanimous view on Dhoni has been his continued struggle with strike rotation in the middle overs.
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In the bowling department, Yuzvendra Chahal is again expected to miss the game given Ravindra Jadeja – a spinner – is the only all-rounder in the Indian team in Hardik Pandya’s absence. Although Vijay Shankar has been drafted in as Pandya’s replacement, it is unlikely that he will get a game in Adelaide.
Among the pacers, Mohammed Shami impressed with the new ball and at the death, he also executed the yorkers well. But India will be hoping Bhuvneshwar Kumar to do a better job in the second ODI as a lot depends on his presence at number 8 to strengthen the lower order.
Here is India’s predicted XI:
Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (C), Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (WK), Dinesh Karthik/ Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Khaleel Ahmed
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In the absence of Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell stepped up to finish the innings very well. But the team management would want to make sure Maxwell gets more balls to bat in the next game as he is the team’s x-factor.
Peter Siddle made his return to the Australian playing XI for the first time since 2010 and is likely to get another match despite being the least impressive of the three seamers.
Here is Australia’s predicted XI:
Aaron Finch (C), Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (WK), Jason Behrendorff, Jhye Richardson, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon
