The much-hyped India-Australia first ODI in Chennai did not live up to the expectations, with both teams failing to play to their full capacity, but Virat Kohli's team emerged victorious to take a 1-0 lead. Now, India will look to double that advantage as the home team takes on Australia for the crucial second ODI at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday (September 21).
Despite a patchy performance from both teams, India and Australia might not be looking to make major changes for the second ODI.
Ajinkya Rahane replaced Shikhar Dhawan, who is not available for the first three ODIs, but the opener did not perform well with the bat. Kohli and the Indian team management might give him another chance in the second ODI, else KL Rahul might be preferred in the third ODI. This second match will be crucial for Rahane.
The rest of players should pick themselves for the contest, but India's top order needs to start well. One cannot depend on MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya to bail them out of pressure cooker situations.
Coming to Australia, like India, their top order failed and opener Hilton Cartwright might still be given another chance. Considering it was his debut, the Australian deserves a spot in the playing XI again. To be fair, there are no like-for-like replacements at the top with Aaron Finch still out so Cartwright is lucky to get a game.
However, Australia will not mind shuffling their batting order, depending on the start they get. Glenn Maxwell can be used as a floater as he can tear apart Indian spinners during the middle stages.
It remains to be seen if James Faulkner will be retained. With the pitch at Eden Gardens having a recent history of assisting spinners, they might be tempted to play another spinner, Ashton Agar.
Pitch conditions
The monsoon season has lasted longer than usual. Rains poured in Kolkata on Monday (September 18) with the sun playing hide and seek, which means that the ground staff has not got much time to prepare the pitch for Thursday's game.
Lack of preparation time might mean that the playing surface would be slow, and would assist the spinners. A low-scoring affair is on the cards too.
Confirmed playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli (c), Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (w), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia: David Warner, Hilton Cartwright, Steve Smith (c), Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (w), Pat Cummins, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Kane Richardson.
Match starts 1.30 PM IST
