India will hunt for a win after a long time in Australia when they take on Afghanistan on Tuesday in Adelaide in their final warm-up game before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
MS Dhoni's men have seriously struggled for consistency and any kind of quality in the ODI matches they have played so far, that coming after their 2-0 defeat to Australia in a four-match Test series.
India were thumped by Australia in their first warm-up on Sunday, with the bowlers getting smashed all over the park, while the batsmen, yet again, failed to live up to the hype.
Even if India went down to Australia by well over a 100 runs, there were a few positives to take from the game, however, chief of them being Shikhar Dhawan's 59. For the first time on the tour, Dhawan looked more like himself, and India will pray and hope he continues this upward trajectory.
"It feels great to be back amongst the runs," said Dhawan to BCCI's official website after the half-century. "More than the runs I am more satisfied with the way the ball is coming off my bat. Today [Sunday] the ball went in the places I wanted to hit and with the ease with which I wanted it to.
"There were a range of shots that I enjoyed playing, but it was the cover drive that I hit off Mitchell Marsh that made me feel really good. The moment it left my bat it raced away to the extra cover region for a boundary, piercing the field.
"The highlight of the shot was that it was effortless; and when shots come effortlessly the joy of it is completely different."
Ajinkya Rahane and Ambati Rayudu also struck half-centuries, but Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni could not quite find their range with the willow again.
The wicket in Adelaide was a batting beauty – made clear by the ridiculous 371 Australia made in just 48.1 overs in the first innings – even if it had a bit of pace and bounce, which found out the Indian batsmen at times.
India play their opening match of the World Cup in Adelaide as well, and the batsmen, and bowlers, will want to get in as much practice as possible against Afghanistan, who play their first warm-up match, at the Adelaide Oval.
"I am absolutely looking forward to the games ahead," added Dhawan. "The two warm-ups games are going to be ideal preparation for us ahead of the big games."
For Afghanistan, this will be their first World Cup warm-up game against an international side, and they will be confident of troubling India's batsmen with their quality pace bowlers.
"Hopefully we try our best to perform well in that game [against India], to better prepare for the first game against Bangladesh, and hopefully we beat India," Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi said.
"The boys have prepared very well for the last few months, and we played two warm-up games as well with the Western Australia clubs and we beat them. We've had quite good preparation."
Where to Watch Live
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The warm-up match is scheduled for a 2 pm local time (9 am IST, 3.30 am GMT, 10.30 pm ET) start with live coverage in India on Star Sports 1, Star Sports HD 1, Star Sports 2 and Star Sports HD 3 (Both Hindi). Viewers can also watch the match via live streaming online on Starsports.com.
Catch the game in Australia on Channel Nine and Fox Sports, while viewers can also live stream the game on Cricket Australia Live. Audience in the USA can watch the warm-up game live on ESPN or Watch ESPN.
UK audience can do the same on Sky Sports 2 (now Sky Sports World Cup) or live stream via Sky Go.
