While India would fight hard to draw level and stay alive in the 3-match series, Australia are in with a golden chance of winning their second consecutive bilateral series against the Men in Blue on their soil.
With Rishabh Pant missing out on the game owing to injury, India will be forced to make a change to fill in for a wicket-keeping option.
Australian skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bowl first at Rajkot. The Aussies are fielding the same playing eleven as they did in the opening game in Mumbai.
Finch: We are going to bowl first. It looks like a beautiful wicket. They controlled their length really well. Same team for us.
Kohli: We would've bowled first as well. But the good thing is that there's not much dew. It looks really nice and hard. If we put enough runs on the board, we have a good chance of defending. You will be beaten comprehensively by sides like Australia at the International level. It's about understanding what went wrong. We need to focus on the positives. We are going to be more brave than the last game, that's for sure. Couple of changes. One forced change; Rishabh is out with a concussion. KL will don the gloves and Manish comes in for Rishabh. Also, Saini replaces Shardul.
Playing XI
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Aaron Finch(c), Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Ashton Turner, Alex Carey(w), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Lokesh Rahul(w), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah