India eyes rare ODI clean sweep against struggling Australia

RAJKOT: Skipper Rohit Sharma would fancy a perfect culmination to Indian team’s World Cup preparations as host eyes a rare clean sweep of Australia in the third and final ODI here on Wednesday.

Never before in the history has India whitewashed Australia in the ODI format. In fact, neither of them have achieved such a result, home or away, irrespective of the number of matches played in a series.

Given how perfectly everything has panned out for the World Cup host in the lead up to the mega tournament, it would only be fitting that India finish with a deserving 3-0 score-line.

Dominant Indian team, despite the absence of its front-line players and still tinkering with playing combinations to make sure every member has had game-time under their belt, is in pole position to record a fourth consecutive ODI win before the quadrennial event begins.

If it manages to clinch a 3-0 win, India would also have taken a huge upper-hand over the five-time world champion Australia before the two teams meet again in Chennai on October 7 for their World Cup opener.

It will be no exaggeration in saying India has battered Australia in the first two ODIs despite both the rivals making plenty of changes to keep their top guns fresh, while also putting miles in the legs of those who would not usually feature in first-choice XIs.

There could, however, be some respite for the Australian bowlers as India has rested its young gun Shubman Gill for the final ODI after his 74 and 104 in the first two games, along with Shardul Thakur.

In the 50-overs World Cup year, Gill is the only batter in the format with a thousand runs and counting — 1,230 runs to be precise at a staggering average of 72.35 — and his absence from the final game would certainly be felt.

But India’s batting mainstays Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are expected to return and so are the in-form Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya from a brief resting period during which KL Rahul has led admirably.

That India would end up with a problem of plenty was something not envisaged when the team embarked on the Asia Cup campaign just a few weeks ago. But the likes of Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Mohammed Shami and even Mohammed Siraj have transformed this Indian outfit into a formidable unit.