Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss in cloudy conditions and opted to field first in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia in Brisbane on Saturday. With the series level at 1-1, the next five days in Brisbane could potentially decide the fate of the BGT series. Australia will look to build on the momentum they found in Adelaide, while India will look to take inspiration from the record-breaking win in Perth. Australia decided to bring in Josh Hazlewood, who missed the second Test due to side strain. Scott Boland, who played an influential role for Australia with the pink ball, had to make way for Hazlewood. For India, Harshit Rana and Ravichandran Ashwin were replaced by right-armer Akash Deep and seasoned all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja.
After winning the toss, Indian captain Rohit Sharma informed about the two changes and said they wanted to make the best use of the cloudy conditions.
“We're going to bowl first. A bit cloudy and a bit of grass, looks a bit soft too, we want to make the best use of the conditions. There's a lot of cricket to be played, both teams have played good cricket in the last two matches. A big game for us, we will do what is expected of us. We will play good cricket. We understand that we did not do that in the previous game,” he said.
Asked about the atmosphere in the dressing room, Rohit said: “It's absolutely buzzing. The boys are looking forward to the match, we're looking forward to coming here to play. It's looking a bit soft at the moment, the conditions are also a bit cloudy, but as it goes on it will get better to bat. We have made two changes: Jadeja and Akash back in place of Ashwin and Harshit.”
Australian captain Pat Cummins said during the toss that Aussies would also have bowled first.
“We would have bowled first too. It's been a fantastic series so far. Very happy with last week, pretty much everyone came into the series, it's been a good run-in. Preparations have been pretty good. The early finish in Adelaide allowed us to we Get here early and get settled. Only one change: Scott Boland is out for Hazlewood,” he said.
India (playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep
Australia (playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
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