IND VS AUS, ICC World Cup 2019: India to lock horns against Australia in battle of title contenders

India and Australia have played each 11 times in the World Cup with Australia winning eight of those clashes. Australia beat India in the semifinals of 2015 World Cup which was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

India will be locking horns against Australia in Match 14  of the ICC World Cup being played at the Kennington Oval in London. The match is scheduled to commence at 3 pm (IST). Both the team go in the encounter on the back of registering clinical wins in their previous games. While Virat Kohli-led team India beat South Africa by six wickets, Australia have registered back to back wins against Afghanistan and West Indies. India and Australia have played each 11 times in the World Cup with Australia winning eight of those clashes. However, in recent times, both teams have shared honours in ODI cricket by winning bilateral series in each others backyard. It might be noted that Australia beat India in the semifinals of 2015 World Cup which was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. India had beaten Australia in the quarterfinals of the 2011 World Cup, enroute to them winning their second World Cup title. India and Australia batsmen have been found wanting against short pitch bowling on seaming decks in the tournament so far . While the Australian batsman were all at sea against the pace battery of the West Indies, the Indian top order were also bothered by the short pitch deliveries of the South African pacers. With both teams having a potent seam attack, the top order of either sides would have gone in for an extensive net session to cope up with the pace and bounce. Australia would be happy with the form of their comeback kings Warner and Smith who have runs under their belt ahead of the clash against the Indians. Wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey has contributed meaningfully with the bat in both their games. The Aussies would look for some clinical ball striking by Maxwell and Stoinis down the order. Finch and Co. would take Nathan Coulter Nile's 92 against the Windies as a big boost to their batting order. Indians would be delighted with the form of their opener Rohit Sharma who struck a match winning ton against South Africa and bailed India out of trouble. Meanwhile, Indians would want Rohit's partner Shikhar to get back in form and provide the opening salvo up the order. Skipper and run scoring machine Kohli would be raring to spearhead the middle order and get a good knock after getting out cheaply against the Proteas. Both teams have a lethal pace attack and their seamers have been in rich wicket taking form in their previous encounters. While Starc and Cummins produced match winning spells against Afghanistan and West Indies, Bumrah was pretty impressive against South Africa. When it comes to spin, India certainly have the edge over their opponents with two master class spinners in Chahal and Yadav.Australian spinner Adam Zampa has been among the wickets in Australia's previous encounters. M.S. Dhoni's gloves controversy will take centre stage even as India and Australia look to iron out the flaws and bring their best to the table when they lock horns in a marquee World Cup encounter at the Kennington Oval on Saturday. India's opening game in the ongoing World Cup saw Dhoni once again profess his love for the security forces after he was spotted with the regimental dagger insignia of the Indian Para Special Forces on his wicketkeeping gloves. The Army insignia was spotted on Dhoni's gloves as television replays showed him stumping Andile Phehlukwayo in the 40th over of the innings bowled by Yuzvendra Chahal. While the BCCI asked the ICC to allow Dhoni to continue sporting the the dagger insignia, the game's governing body rejected the plea, saying that the regulations for ICC events do not permit any individual message and that the logo also breaches the regulations in relation to what is permitted on wicket keeping gloves. Here are the squads for both the teams: India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, Dinesh Karthik (wk), KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja Australia: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Kane Richardson, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins