Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first in the third One-day International against Australia in Ranchi on Friday.
The hosts decided to wear camouflaged caps during the match as a tribute to the country’s armed forces. They will be doing this for at least one match every year going forward.
“This is in honour of our soldiers who died in the Pulwama attack,” Kohli said at the toss. “Every player of our team will also donate his entire match fee to the defense fund of the country. I urge my countrymen to donate and help the families of the soldiers who lost their lives in the Pulwama attack.”
The caps were distributed to the players by Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The former captain was conferred the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the Indian Territorial Army in 2011.
The hosts went in with an unchanged XI for the third ODI at the JSCA International Stadium. The Aussies, on the other hand, included pacer Jhye Richardson in place of Nathan Coulter-Nile, who returned home for the birth of his second child.
If India win on Friday, they will seal the five-match series 3-0 and also become the No 1 ODI team in the world.
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Ambati Rayudu, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (w), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa.