India vs Australia 2nd ODI tip-off XI: Mohammed Siraj back into the side, Shardul Thakur to keep his spot, Mitchell Starc back in for Australia

Coming to bat when the team was cruising to victory in Mohali at three, Iyer looked like a cat on a hot tin roof. He never looked comfortable at the crease and eventually got himself out in a lame run-out. Indian fans and team management would be hoping that he will come good in the second ODI. Elsewhere, in the lineup, Shardul Thakur looked a bit hungover from the Asia Cup campaign. While Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were extracting something out of the surface Shardul gave away easy runs. Shardul’s form with the ball will be crucial going forward for the team as he can give the batting depth at eight for India.

As for Australia, it is hard to pinpoint what has gone wrong exactly as there were a lot of moving parts in their squad with injuries and other reasons hence they could pick from what they had in front of them which was not enough to challenge this strong Indian team in home conditions hence for the next game with a bit of injection of quality bowlers and batters with the pedigree of playing in Indian conditions, Australian side will be lot more formidable.

IND vs AUS 2nd ODI Live Streaming:
Players of the Australian cricket team congratulate KL Rahul. (EXPRESS PHOTO BY Kamleshwar Singh)

Mohammed Siraj into the side

With a short turnaround between the games and Jasprit Bumrah completing his quota for the first time in a while the team management will consider resting him and bring in the likes of Siraj into the side. Siraj is in magnificent form with the ball as he has recently shown with his five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Also, India would like to test different bowling pairings as they might have to rotate the fast bowlers quite a bit in the long World Cup campaign.

Shardul Thakur to keep his spot

Though the bowling all-rounder had a poor game on Friday Shardul rarely goes through a cricket match without picking a wicket and the 1st ODI was one of those occasions. His form will be key for India as his bowling and batting at number eight will provide the required balance for the side. And on a wicket like Indore which is traditionally conducive for batting his tricks might come in handy.

Mitchell Starc will be back in for Australia

In the first ODI apart from Pat Cummins Australia lacked the extra pace in the bowling attack which enabled India to chase the runs posted by Australia easily in the second innings. With Starc coming back in for the next game he not only provides the left-arm angle which has troubled the Indian batters in the past but his high pace will also cause trouble on true Indore wicket.

India predicted XI: Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (c, wk), Tilak Varma, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

Australia predicted XI: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa