Key events
Virat Kohli – and perhaps Rohit Sharma – is thought to be on his last tour of Australia and can turn to fond memories of previous visits to Adelaide Oval. The India star famously hit twin centuries in a Test at the iconic venue in 2014, though might be more concerned with getting off the mark today after a duck in the ODI series opener.
The 36-year-old has had a love-hate relationship at times with fans on these shores, but surely shirt colours won’t matter today for what is expected to be his last international innings in Adelaide. Dan Gallan looks at the players – like Kohli – who appeal to opposition fans as much as their own.
Kohli’s numbers in Australia speak for themselves. Against the Aussies in one-day internationals he has piled up 2,451 runs in 51 matches at an average north of 53. In Tests he’s tallied 2,232 runs at 43.76 in 30 outings. His nine hundreds are the most he registered against any opposition and his twin-ton display in Adelaide in 2014 stands as one of the greatest individual performances in the country. Like a true blue Aussie he leaned into the fight and gave as good as he got.
India XI
Shubman Gill (c), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Washington Sundar, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.
Kuldeep Yadav remains a surprise omission and Shubman is hopeful of a better showing with the bat than India produced in Perth.
Looks like a pretty good surface. We would have bowled first as well. It’s never easy when the rain coming in and out [in Perth], starting and stopping, but hopefully the weather looks good today and we’ll have no stoppage.
Batting first you know hopefully we get plenty of runs on the board. We’re going with the same team.
Australia XI
Mitchell Marsh (c), Travis Head, Matthew Short, Matthew Renshaw, Alex Carey (wk), Cooper Connolly, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
Alex Carey returns behind the stumps with Josh Philippe unlucky to make way after a strong perhaps with the gloves and with the bat in Perth. Xavier Bartlett gets his opportunity at the expense of Nathan Ellis. Adam Zampa is in for Matthew Kuhnemann.
The Australia skipper is all smiles after his powerful knock and victory in the series opener.
I think everyone loves to play here. We always get amazing crowds and hopefully both teams can put on a great show for what’s expected to be a big crowd today.
Toss
Australia captain Mitch Marsh wins the toss for the second time in the series and once again elects to field. The sun is shining and the pitch looks like a tasty one for the batters, but India captain Shubman Gill admits he would have preferred to bowl this afternoon.
Preamble
Martin Pegan
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the second one-day international between Australia and India at Adelaide Oval. With this a short and sharp three-match ODI series, the hosts are just one win away from securing victory after easing through the first meeting on Sunday.
The summer of cricket got off to a damp start in Perth with the ODI interrupted multiple times by rain but the forecast is much more promising today in Adelaide and both sides should be allocated the full 50 overs. India were unlikely to see out their overs in Perth even before the game was reduced to 26 overs, with their top order unable to handle the pace and bounce of Josh Hazlewood (2/20), Mitchell Starc (1/22) and Nathan Ellis (1/29).
KL Rahul (38) and Axar Patel (31) lifted the tourists to a competitive total but India – and perhaps even Australia – fans will be hoping that Virat Kohli can have more impact on his farewell tour after being caught for a rare ODI duck in Perth. Australia captain Mitchell Marsh (46no) and the impressive Josh Philippe (37) made light work of the chase as the hosts won by seven wickets.
First ball will be at 2pm local time in Adelaide / 2.30pm AEDT / 9am IDT. The toss and team news will be coming up shortly. Meanwhile, let us know your thoughts and predictions – shoot me an email or find me @martinpegan on Bluesky or X. Let’s get into it!
