India vs Australia: Aakash Chopra predicts India's playing XI for Ranchi ODI

India will play against Australia in the third ODI in Ranchi on Friday with an aim of clinching the series. The Men in Blue are leading 2-0 in the five-match series at the moment and another victory will see them pocketing their third consecutive bilateral series in the 50-overs format against the Kangaroos. It will also be the fourth consecutive series win over them at home for India since 2010-11.

Former India Test opener Aakash Chopra who does commentary and analysis now has predicted the Indian line-up for the third match besides explaining why Virat Kohli’s men look heavy favourites to win the game and take an unassailable lead. His playing XI didn’t feature KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant even though India are just left with a few games now before they head to England for the ICC World Cup. Both the players appeared to play in the two-match T20I series that India lost 0-2 but not yet in the ODI series.

‘India much more experienced than Australia’

According to Chopra, who had played a crucial role as an opener in India’s tour of Australia in 2003-04, the Aussies are short of experience, unlike India. The visiting side has just three batsmen who have more than 1,000 runs in ODIs while the Indian side is a far heavier outfit in terms of experience.

“Australia have got just three batsmen in their squad who have crossed the 1,000-run mark in ODI cricket – Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, and Glenn Maxwell. Whereas if you take a look at the Indian team then you will find the likes of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni. The likes of Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav and even Ravindra Jadeja have scored more than 1,000 runs in ODI cricket. The tie is not equally matched and India are a bit stronger,” Chopra said in his latest video of AakashVani.

Chopra went ahead with the established opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan even though the pair has shown glimpses of off-form of late. Dhawan particularly hasn’t scored big since January and Chopra felt the team needed to back the duo to regain form ahead of the World Cup.

Chopra felt Bhuvneshwar Kumar needed to replace Mohammed Shami for the latter needed some rest after playing continuous cricket for some time. He wasn’t pleased over the fact that pacer Siddharth Kaul didn’t get a chance following the first T20I against Australia. The former cricketer picked Yuzvendra Chahal in place of Kuldeep Yadav besides giving Ravindra Jadeja a berth in the playing XI.

Aakash Chopra’s predicted playing XI for India in Ranchi ODI

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (C), Ambati Rayudu, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.

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