After Test high, India begin final preparations for World Cup

Hit hard by an unexpected controversy after the high of the Test triumph India will look to fine tune their World Cup preparations in the threematch ODI series against an underfire Australia beginning here on SaturdayOn the eve of the opening game the BCCI suspended Hardik Pandya and K L Rahul pending an inquiry for their unsavoury remarks on women during a TV show effectively ruling them out of the seriesWhile Pandya was a certainty in the playing XI an outofform Rahul was not in contention to play on SaturdaySkipper Virat Kohli on Friday condemned the comments made by his two teammates and said the team does not align with the individual opinionsThe two concerned players have felt what has gone wrong and they have understood the magnitude of whats happened he said in the prematch press conferenceRahul was unlikely to get a go owing to both his poor form and the presence of a wellsettled opening pair in Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan More significant is Pandyas absence as the allrounder provides crucial balance to the ODI side with his ability to bowl 10 overs as well as bat in the middle orderPandyas absence means that India will have to rejig their attack Jasprit Bumrah has already been rested for this series as well as the tour of New Zealand and this allows the thinktank to conduct one final experimentation with their bowling attackBhuvneshwar Kumar is a shoein and thereafter it depends if Kohli wants to go in with a threeman pace attack to compensate for Pandyas lossIn such a scenario Mohammed Shami and Khaleel Ahmed are expected to get the nod as India continue zeroing on the pace quartet for the World Cup squad There is a sprinkling of grass on the SCG pitch and it could push the Indian skipper to opt for a threepacer and twospinner combinationKohli also stated that in Pandyas absence Ravindra Jadeja would step up as the allrounder He would partner up with leftarm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav as Indias fivepronged attack with Kedar Jadhav fulfilling any parttime bowling duties if neededWith the two openers and Kohli at number three the remaining batting lineup picks itself Jadhav MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu will form the middle order and there will be keen interest in the latter duos form hereDhoni had an offcolour 2018 managing 275 runs in 20 ODIs at average 25 without a halfcentury While this is a meagre return for a batsman of his stature the worrying aspect is Dhonis strikerate of 7142 which is remarkably lower than his ODI career strikerate of 8789India brought in Rayudu for the allimportant number four role and since the Asia Cup last September have given him a long run in the middle order In this interim Rayudu scored 392 runs in 11 ODIs in the Asia Cup and against West Indies at average 56 including a hundred and three halfcenturiesWhile he put in a more consistent showing than any of the other previously tried contenders this run came in conditions different from those in England As such how Rayudu fares on this twin tour of Australia and New Zealand will be a closer representation of whether the Indian team has finally cracked the number four quandarySimilar middleorder issues plagued the visitors when they last toured here for an ODI contest losing 41 in January 2016 when Dhoni was still captain Sharma and Kohli topped the charts with 441 and 381 runs in the fivematch series respectively while Dhawan also scored 287 runsBut there were no sizeable contributions from the middle and only Manish Pandeys fighting hundred in the final ODI had saved India from a 50 scorelineIndias ODI record in Australia is quite poor Apart from the 1985 World Championship and 2008 CB Series wins they have lost 35 out of 48 ODIs played against Australia on their home soilThe absence of David Warner 220 runs in three matches in 2016 and Steve Smith 315 runs in five matches in 2016 might help them again though as also the absence of Mitchell Starc Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood with the trio rested from this seriesAustralia have named their playing eleven ahead of the first ODI with Nathan Lyon featuring as the lone spinner and Peter Siddle returning to this format for the first time since 2010 Keeperbatsman Alex Carey will open in ODI cricket for the first time and will pair up with skipper Aaron Finch while Usman Khawaja Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscomb will form the middle orderThe hosts bat deep with Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell lined up at numbers six and seven albeit their pace attack seems weak on paper With Siddle returning to the format after eight years leftarm pacer Jason Behrendorff will make his ODI debut on SaturdayTeamsIndia Virat Kohli c Rohit Sharma KL Rahul Shikhar Dhawan Ambati Rayudu Dinesh Karthik Kedar Jadhav MS Dhoni wk Hardik Pandya Kuldeep Yadav Yuzvendra Chahal Ravindra Jadeja Bhuvneshwar Kumar Khaleel Ahmed Mohammed Shami Mohammed SirajAustralia playing XI Aaron Finch c Alex Carey wk Usman Khawaja Shaun Marsh Peter Handscomb Marcus Stoinis Glenn Maxwell Nathan Lyon Peter Siddle Jhye Richardson Jason BehrendorffMatch starts 750 am ISTCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever