IND vs AUS 2nd ODI Match Prediction

IND vs AUS Team Previews

India

India benefitted from winning the toss and chasing in the previous match but it was sits depth in batting that allowed it to eventually get to a victory. KL Rahul is becoming quite the prolific ODI middle-order batter while Ravindra Jadeja continues to impress with the bat. 

The batting after number seven is quite thin and could have been blown away but that did not happen in the previous match. Ishan Kishan is going to be replaced by Rohit Sharma for this match and that is another big positive for India. Rohit Sharma scored a century in his previous match and has formed an excellent batting partnership with Shubman Gill. 

In fact, Gill (India's best ODI batter right now), Sharma, Kohli, and SKY form a very strong batting top order. SKY has yet to prove his credentials in ODI cricket but would you really bet against him eventually coming good? We would not.

With KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, and Ravindra Jadeja in the lineup, the batting is very strong. The only place where India might struggle is if it has to play at a higher tempo than normal. That will bring it out of its comfort zone and so in a lot of ways, venues where the par score is 300 suit India better than where they need to score 360 or 375.

Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Siraj are turning into one of the best white-ball bowling pairs in the world. They basically broke the Australian back in the previous match. They also covered up some of the weaknesses of the other bowlers. 

We think Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and Hardik Pandya can be vulnerable to attack, especially on surfaces where there is not much help. 

Australia

Australia went in with 8 batting options and backed their bowling all-rounders to do the job. The fact that the batters did not deliver and then there was not enough firepower to back Mitchell Starc up showed their plans fell apart quite comprehensively. 

We think they are going to stick to their guns and go with pretty much the same team for the next match. Players like Travis Head, Steve Smith, and the big-hitting all-rounders will all enjoy the surface in Vishakapatnam. This is the perfect opportunity for Australia to try and showcase its batting strength and go hard from the start. 

We backed Head to score a big one in the previous match and are not losing faith in him just yet. Steve Smith also looked in tremendous touch before getting out. Mitch Marsh also scored a big one and that could leave David Warner in a bit of a precarious position. 

Australia holds the advantage in terms of batting power and it has more depth than India. To make the most of its resources, though, it has to play a high-risk game and that is not going to be easy to execute. 

Mitchell Starc bowled beautifully in the previous match getting the ball to shape back. He was by far the best of the Australian bowlers although Sean Abbott and Marcus Stoinis had their moments as well. The medium-pace all-round bowling options could go for a lot of runs in this match and are likely to be targetted.