AUS vs IND 2nd ODI Match Prediction

AUS vs IND Team Previews

Australia

The revamped Australian ODI side has had an excellent start to the new year and fans would be hoping that the nightmare that was 2018 is well and truly over. There were a few things to appreciate in the manner of Australia’s victory.

Alex Carey looked quite good at the top of the order and we think he could make an impact in that position. Aaron Finch did not score runs but he is never too far away from a big score. We think his run of bad form is about to come to an end and a bet on him to come good could pay off well.

Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh spent some valuable time in the middle while Peter Handscomb played an excellent inning. If the top order of the Australian side can keep scoring runs then the likes of Stoinis and Maxwell in the lower order could really boost the total in one of these matches.

The next match is going to be played at the Adelaide Oval which is one of the best batting pitches in the country. It is also the venue where Alex Carey plays for the Adelaide Strikers and has been scoring runs consistently as well.

While the total that the Australian team ended up scoring seemed a little short of what is acceptable nowadays, it was the Aussie bowlers that really won them the match. Jhye Richardson and Jason Behrendorff ran through a strong Indian batting and reduced them to 4 for 3 at one stage.

Nathan Lyon also played an ODI after a long time but he did not have too much impact on the game. He did not pick a wicket and gave away 50 runs in his ten overs. Coming into the situation which he did, he would have expected to do better.

Peter Siddle also did not seem like a long term solution for the Australian ODI side.

Australia has not won any series in international cricket in any format since the ball-tampering saga. We are sure they will not make any change to their side and try to win this series in this match itself.

India

India seemed a little complacent heading into the first match of the ODI series. We don’t think their bowling was too bad because they never let the Australians get away in terms of run scoring. They did give away 93 runs in the last ten overs but with wickets in hand that is quite expected.

India is also playing without its best death bowler in Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is also returning after a long layoff. Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja bowled pretty well although they did go for some runs towards the end of the inning.

Playing Yuzvendra Chahal has to be an option that India looks at in this game. The leg-spinner is probably missing out because of the lack of Hardik Pandya in the side which makes India have to play a third seamer and a batting all-rounder.

Since Pandya is not going to be available we are not too hopeful of seeing him in the playing eleven.

Overall, though, the Indian bowling attack did not fare too badly except for Khaleel Ahmed, who was really down in pace. Mohammad Siraj is an option that the side can explore looking ahead to the ICC World Cup 2019.

The top-3 of the Indian batting is set in stone and there is nothing that is going to change that in the foreseeable future. Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli are among the three most dangerous batsmen in ODI cricket and definitely the three most dangerous ones in this series.

Rohit Sharma made an amazing century and showed why he is a legend in this format of the game. No sane person is going to bet on Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan missing out again and again, especially on the featherbed pitch that the Adelaide Oval offers.

We recommend betting on Virat Kohli scoring a hundred in the second ODI against Australia.

Ambati Rayadi is going to bat at 4, Dhoni at 5, but we see Kedar Jadhav getting a game in the next match. Rayadu has been reported for a suspect action and so India will need Jadhav as the sixth bowling option.

We would have had him in the side ahead of Dinesh Karthik in any case.

Apart from this one change, we don’t think India is going to make any other change. The side has been too successful for too long to react in an alarmist fashion to just one defeat.