While India captain Virat Kohli thought it was a no-brainer to bat first on a dry surface in Nagpur, Aaron Finch pulled off a surprise by opting to bowl first in the second one-day international on Tuesday.
“We expect this pitch to deteriorate, you can imagine what will happen with the spikes on it,” said Kohli adding that there would be no dew later on, making it easier to bowl second.
Australia made two changes to their side from the first ODI, with Nathan Lyon and Shaun Marsh coming in, to replace Jason Behrendroff and Ashton Turner.
India have gone with an unchanged playing XI, which means both sides field two front-line spinners.
India lead the five-match series 1-0 after victory in the first ODI in Hyderabad.
Very interesting to see how the two captains have read this pitch differently. India think batting will get difficult, Australia happy to bowl first in spite of playing two spinners. Pitch report says 250-260 will be a good score
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) March 5, 2019
PLAYING XI:
INDIA: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (C), Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (W), Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
AUSTRALIA: Usman Khawaja, Aaron Finch (C), Marcus Stoinis, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Alex Carey (W), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Nathan Lyon