India got what they wanted as skipper Shubman Gill acknowledged, despite losing the toss, as Australian captain Mitchell Marsh called it right for the third straight game and opted to bat this time around on what looked like a good wicket in Sydney on Saturday, October 25. Australia made one change, bringing back pacer Nathan Ellis for the series finale and India made a couple of them, as Kuldeep Yadav and Prasidh Krishna were included for their respective first games of the tour.
Kuldeep and Prasidh replaced Nitish Kumar Reddy and Arshdeep Singh. While Arshdeep was rested, probably since the left-armer is likely to play all five T20Is starting next week, Reddy was ruled out due to a qaudriceps injury, as confirmed by the BCCI right after the toss.
“Nitish Kumar Reddy sustained a left quadriceps injury during the second ODI in Adelaide and was subsequently unavailable for selection for the third ODI. The BCCI Medical Team is monitoring him on a daily basis,” the BCCI statement on Twitter (now X) read. This is the second injury for Reddy in three months, having suffered a knee injury during the England tour and subsequently being ruled out of the last couple of Test matches.
If Reddy’s injury takes some time to heal, then India might have to bring in a replacement for the five T20Is, given that Hardik Pandya is already unavailable. The visitors might be short on a bowling option in Reddy’s absence, despite having someone like Shivam Dube in the squad.
Playing XIs
India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul(w), Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Australia: Mitchell Marsh(c), Travis Head, Matthew Short, Matt Renshaw, Alex Carey(w), Cooper Connolly, Mitchell Owen, Nathan Ellis, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
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