Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Dinesh Karthik believes India is unlikely to make any changes to their playing XI. Karthik highlighted that India is going to stick with Harshit Rana at number eight. Rana had returned with impressive figures of 4-39 in 8.4 overs he bowled against Australia in the third ODI of the series at Sydney.
Furthermore, Rana scored a nice little cameo of 24 runs off 18 balls in the second game of the series. However, Arshdeep Singh, who is India’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is with 101 scalps, was made to sit out in the opening T20I against the hosts.
Dinesh Karthik said on Cricbuzz, “No. As much as I like the show to be long, no. I don’t think they will make any changes because Nitish Kumar Reddy is not there, so they want to play Harshit Rana at No.8 to get that batting.
On the other hand, Karthik expects Australia to play with the same playing XI in the second game of the series.
“If you look at them, Josh Hazlewood is obviously going to play one game, so it’s going to be the same. The one change they might be tempted is if looking at Bartlett, if they can bring in a left-arm option which I don’t think they will do, considering how well he bowled in the second ODI. So, I think they will also play the same eleven. Don’t think you can tell much. If you go after this game and drop a player and say we are moving on, ‘he will say why?’ Then you don’t have anywhere to go.”
Meanwhile, Karthik picked India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav and Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh, as the two players to watch out for. The former RCB batter recalled Marsh’s blistering 67-run knock against the Bengaluru-based franchise in IPL 2025.
“Suryakumar Yadav for India, Mitchell Marsh from Australia. He got a superb 80-90, he smashed us. I remember in Lucknow, that battle very well.”
The second T20I between Australia and India will be played at the MCG on Friday.
