3rd Test: Ravindra Jadeja, Akash Deep come in as India win toss and elect to bowl first

by IANS |

Brisbane, Dec 14 (IANS) Ravindra Jadeja and Akash Deep come in as India won the toss and elected to bowl first against Australia in third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test under overcast skies at the Gabba on Saturday. The five-match series is currently tied at 1-1.

This is the first time in this series that India have decided to bowl first after winning the toss. Both Jadeja and Akash will be playing their first game of the series after replacing Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana in the playing eleven.

"A little bit overcast. A bit of grass and looks soft, so want to make the best of conditions. We want to try to make the best use of the conditions and see what we can do with the ball up-front. Lot of cricket to be played, both teams have played good cricket in the last two games. Big game for us here, we will try and do what is expected out of us."

“We'll play good cricket, we understand we have to capture some moments, we didn't do that in the previous game which is why we lost. It's absolutely buzzing, the guys are looking forward to the match, we're looking forward to coming out here and playing,” said India skipper Rohit Sharma, who will continue to bat at number six.

Australia had made just one change: Josh Hazlewood is fit after missing Adelaide Test due to side strain and he replaces Scott Boland in the playing eleven. “We would've bowled first too. Been a fantastic series so far. Really happy with last week, just about everyone got into the series, been a good lead-up. Preparations have been pretty good. Early finish in Adelaide allowed us to come up here early and get settled,” said Australia captain Pat Cummins.

Playing XIs

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep

Australia: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood