Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat first in the fourth ODI against Australia on Sunday at Mohali. For the first time in the ODI series both captains wanted to do the same thing as Australian captain Aaron Finch too revealed his intentions of wanting to bat first in a strip which Kohli described as a 'belter'.
In their quest to make the most of the remaining two matches before the World Cup, India made as many as four changes to their playing XI. That Pant would replace Dhoni, was made clear in the post-match press conference by assistant coach Sanjay Bangar in Ranchi as the Indian team management decided to rest Dhoni for the final two ODIs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar for Mohammed Shami was also on the expected lines after the latter was hit on the shin bone in the previous ODI. Yuzvendra Chahal finally got a game after warming the benches for the first three matches. He replaced Ravindra Jadeja.
There was a change in the batting department too with Rayudu making way for KL Rahul, who will bat in the middle order. Dhawan's patchy form has prevented India from giving Rahul a run as an opener.
Australia, on the other hand, left out all-rounder Marcus Stoinis and brought in Ashton Turner, who had made his ODI debut in the first match of the series at Hyderabad. Stoinis hurt his thumb in at Ranchi. Left-arm fast bowler Jason Behrendorff too made his comeback in place of off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli(c), Lokesh Rahul, Rishabh Pant(w), Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah
Australia (Playing XI): Aaron Finch(c), Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Turner, Alex Carey(w), Jhye Richardson, Pat Cummins, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa