India won the toss and opted to bowl in the second T20 international against Australia Sunday at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
India made three changes from the team that won the opening game Friday, with Deepak Chahar replacing concussed Ravindra Jadeja, Shardal Thakur coming in for rested Mohammed Shami and Shreyas Iyer in for Manish Pandey, who has an elbow niggle.Australia, to be led for the first time by Matthew Wade in the absence of injured Aaron Finch, also go into the game without their pace spearheads Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
Starc has been withdrawn from the squad on compassionate grounds due to a family illness and will miss the final two matches of the series, while Hazlewood has a back niggle.
All-rounder Marcus Stoinis returns from injury and Andrew Tye gets his chance with the new ball. There was a T20 debut for all-rounder Daniel Sams.
“The pitch looked really nice in the second half in the previous games we played here,” India captain Virat Kohli said.
“Australia are missing Aaron Finch, so we want to restrict them and chase it down.”
Australia coach Justin Langer said Finch had been a 70-30 chance of playing.”He was close but he started moving and it wasn’t right. He has a small tear in his glute. He is a chance to play Tuesday,” Langer said.
The match is the second in the three-game T20 series and follows the ODI series, won 2-1 by the Australians.
Australia: Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (capt), Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, D’Arcy Short, Sean Abbott, Daniel Sams, Mitchell Swepson, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye
India: Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul, Virat Kohli (capt), Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, T. Natarajan, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal
Umpires: Sam Nogajski (AUS) Paul Wilson (AUS)
TV umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS)
Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
