India vs Australia 3rd T20I preview: Playing XI, pitch report and where to watch

For Australia, some of their senior players like Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa have been in India for nine weeks and fatigue is showing. They need considerable rest before their next assignments. All the four will play in Big Bash League next month. For Smith, the Pakistan Test series would be his next international assignment.

India's top-order has ticked all the boxes with Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and skipper Suryakumar Yadav hitting a half-century each. Ishan Kishan, showing no signs of rustiness even after spending nearly five and half weeks on the World Cup bench, has got two half centuries under his belt.

Rinku Singh, with two superb rear-guard knocks, has consolidated his status as designated finisher in this format and is slowly ensuring a permanent No.6 slot for him in this batting order ahead of the T20 World Cup. However, Tilak, who has not missed any of India's last 12 T20 Internationals, is in a tricky place as he bats No.5 and he faced just 12 deliveries in the last two games.

In the first game, he scored 12 runs off 10 balls with two boundaries in a chase of 209. In the second game in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, he faced the final two deliveries of the Indian innings as Rinku was promoted ahead of him to give the final push.

It would be interesting to see if skipper Suryakumar himself drops a place down in the batting order and gives his younger colleague a chance to play few more balls and get some runs under his belt before Iyer comes calling in the next game in Raipur.

Considering the nature of the tracks on offer, Indian bowlers put up a far improved performance in the second game after conceding 208 runs in the series opener.

While the dot ball count in the first two games remained nearly the same 45 in the first and 44 in the second what has significantly improved is the decrease in boundary percentage while defending in dew-laden conditions in Thiruvananthapuram. From being hit for 24 fours in the first game, the same Indian attack cut it down to half in the next game.

Prasidh Krishna, after being creamed by Jos Inglis and Steve Smith in Visakhapatnam, made a strong comeback with three wickets in his second spell. However, one needs to also factor in that Prasidh was bowling with a cushion of a mammoth target of 235. He was not under pressure. Even the normally profligate Arshdeep Singh, for a change, nailed his block-hole deliveries during death overs.

India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.

Australia: Steve Smith, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Aaron Hardie, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Matthew Wade (c & wk), Sean Abbott, Kane Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Tanveer Sangha

Match starts at 7pm IST. The India vs Australia 3rd T20I will be broadcast live on the Sports18 and Colors Cineplex TV channels. The live streaming will be available on Jio Cinema.

(With PTI Inputs)