India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first against Australia in the third T20I at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur on Friday. The match was reduced to an eight-overs affair due to wet outfield.
India made two changes with Jasprit Bumrah coming in for Umesh Yadav. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, another pacer, was dropped to accommodate Rishabh Pant.
Australia also made a couple of changes -- Daniel Sams in for injured Nathan Ellis and Sean Abbott in for Josh Inglis.
Playing XIs
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.
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Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Cameron Green, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Sean Abbott, Tim David, Matthew Wade (wk), Pat Cummins, Daniel Sams, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
Truncated Match
The toss was delayed for more than two hours due to a wet outfield. The city has been witnessing rain for the last few days, leaving the ground soggy, which has forced the umpires to delay the toss.
The two umpires -- KN Ananthapadmanabhan and Nitin Menon -- were concerned about the safety of the players and had already made two inspections of the outfield at 7:00 PM IST and 8:00 PM IST.
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And the umpires finally agreed to go ahead with the match after the third inspection at 8:45 PM IST.
The groundstaff tried to dry up the wet patches by throwing sawdust. The main area of concern was a patch at wide mid-on which was soft.
The practice sessions in both India and Australia were cancelled on Thursday due to rain.
Australia lead the three-match series 1-0 after winning the opening game by four wickets.
