The Indian cricket team tested its bench strength in the first two ODIs of the 3-match series and it is going to be a problem of plenty for the skipper and the head coach when they will sit for selecting the playing eleven for the final and the third ODI which will be played in Rajkot.
The Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will certainly return for the third ODI and there are good chances that the Indian team management will give a chance to their all-rounder Hardik Pandya in the final ODI as well. However, in the first two ODIs, Shreyas Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Suryakumar Yadav and Mohammad Shami have performed pretty well and it won’t be easy for the skipper and the coach to select their playing eleven.
After the second ODI which India won by 99 runs, the stand-in-skipper KL Rahul was asked about this problem of plenty and who will get selected for the third ODI, he was pretty clear in his mind when he said that it is something that the captain and the coach have to think about and it is their headache. He says that as players, their job is to perform well, every player who will be selected will get a job to do, though sitting out can be difficult especially after scoring runs, it has been like this always.
The second ODI was played at Holkar Stadium, Indore and India posted a big total of 399/5 in their 50 overs with the help of century knocks of Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill. KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav also scored half-centuries and the Indian bowlers also did a good job as they wrapped up the Aussies at the score of 217 after the target was revised to 317 due to rain.
When KL Rahul was asked whether the senior guys will come back in the third ODI, he said that nothing has been discussed but if they come back, they will surely like to make good use of it as the big event ICC ODI World Cup 2023 is just a couple of weeks away.
What do you think, will India whitewash the series or will the Aussies make a comeback and win the final ODI?