The third and final ODI of the three-match ODI series between the hosts Australia and the visitors India will be played at Melbourne Cricket Ground (Melbourne) on Friday (18 January). It will be a day/night encounter which will begin at 13:20 local (07:50 IST).

The series is currently standing at 1-1 which means that the winner of the Melbourne ODI will win the ODI series. Australia won the first ODI of the series at Sydney by 34 runs and India won the last ODI at Adelaide by six wickets.

Earlier in this tour, the MCG organised the second T20I and third Test. The T20I had no result after failing to start the second innings of that game due to the repeated rain-interruptions. Meanwhile, India won the Melbourne Test by 137 runs.

Australian cricket team

The hosts’ openers need to provide the good starts which they have failed in the first two games of this series. The other Australian batsmen are performing well and providing some crucial partnerships.

Also read: Australia Announces Playing XI For the Melbourne ODI

As the Australian cricket team has hugely relied on the inexperienced ODI bowlers in this series, the inconsistency and lack of ODI experiences are the biggest problems for them. Australia needs to look out this position very consciously, especially when the Indian batting line-up is one of the strongest batting line-ups.

Form guide (last five ODIs; starting with most recent): Lost, Won, Lost, Won and Lost

Also read: Aaron Finch Is Frustrated Over His Poor Batting Form

Indian cricket team

The Indian new-ball bowers are in very good form but the new young pacers have the hard experiences in this series. In the middle overs, the Indian bowlers have failed to pick up wickets regularly as it allows the opponent to make a strong total. Also, the Indian bowlers need to improve their performances in the death overs.

Also read: Team India’s Predicted XI For The Melbourne ODI

The top-order batsmen are in strong form in the recent days. Though the middle-order batting seems a very good set up at present, especially when MS Dhoni returns to his form and Dinesh Karthik is playing successfully the finisher role, the depth of the batting is still questionable, especially the lower-order batting.

Form guide (last five ODIs; starting with most recent): Won, Lost, Won, Won and Lost

Also read: Shikhar Dhawan Feels Australia Is Missing Warner And Smith

Full squads

Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Alex Carey (vc/wk), Jason Behrendorff, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Peter Siddle, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Marsh

India: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), Khaleel Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ambati Rayudu, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Vijay Shankar

Key Stats Preview:

• Australia has played 123 ODIs at Melbourne Cricket Ground (Melbourne) where they have won 74 ODIs, lost 45 ODIs, tied once and the remaining three ODIs had no results. They have lost their all last two ODIs at this venue.
• India has played 21 ODIs at Melbourne Cricket Ground (Melbourne) where they have won 10 ODIs and lost 11 ODIs.
• Australia and India have played 14 ODIs at Melbourne Cricket Ground (Melbourne) where Australia has won nine games and India has won five ODIs. Last time, India won an ODI against Australia in this venue was on 10 February 2008 (by five wickets).
• Earlier, Australia and India have played only one bilateral ODI series and that was in 2015/16. Australia had won that five-match ODI series by 4-1.
• Since January 2017, Australia hasn’t won an ODI series.
• Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan (4,967 runs) needs to score 33 more runs to complete his 5,000 ODI runs. He will be 13th Indian batsman, fifth Indian left-handed batsman and fifth Indian opening batsman to achieve this feat.
• Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (1,990 runs) needs to score 10 more runs to complete 2,000 ODI runs in a career. He will be only third Indian cricketer and 26th overall cricketer to score 2,000+ runs and also to take 150+ wickets simultaneously in ODI career.