2nd ODI: Carey, Bartlett come in as Australia elect to bowl against unchanged India

Adelaide, Oct 23 (IANS) Australia have brought in Alex Carey and Xavier Bartlett into their playing eleven as skipper Mitchell Marsh won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in the second ODI at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.

Australia lead the three-match series 1-0 after securing a seven-wicket victory in the rain-affected first ODI in Perth last Sunday.

Australia have also brought back leg-spinner Adam Zampa in place of Matthew Kuhnemann, something which Marsh forgot to mention at toss time.

"The weather played havoc in Perth but the way we stuck at it was really pleasing in. A lot of positives from last year. One of the better pitchers in the country this year. Everyone loves coming to play here.

“We always get amazing crowds, and hopefully both teams put on a great show for the big crowd today. Any time you get a chance to win a series in game two, it's an awesome opportunity. We've got a lot of young guys, so I look forward to it,” he said.

India captain Shubman Gill confirmed that his playing eleven is unchanged. "Looks like a good surface. We would have bowled as well as the pitch has been under cover for a couple of days. We're expecting a little bit initially but happy to bat first. Hopefully the weather is good today and no stoppages,” he said.

In their pitch report, Parthiv Patel and Shane Watson said the Adelaide Oval is set to offer a balanced contest between bat and ball, who also added that overnight UV treatment was used to draw out moisture from the pitch.

"We always expect a really nice cricket surface here, a nice pitch. There is a tiny bit of moisture at the top of the surface. But Adelaide Oval always offers a good contest between bat and ball, and today will be no different either," they said.

Playing XIs

Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Travis Head, Matthew Short, Matthew Renshaw, Alex Carey (wk), Cooper Connolly, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, and Josh Hazlewood

India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammed Siraj

–IANS

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