India opt to bat in 3rd Test

India skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bat in the third Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) here on Wednesday.

The tourists handed a debut to the opener, Mayank Agarwal, while also bringing in left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja in place of injured off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.

Australia, however, has not tinkered much with their winning combination in the Perth Test except for one major change.

Mitchell Marsh is back in the playing XI after being dropped for the first two Tests while Peter Handscomb was benched in the huge Boxing Day Test.

Teams:

Australia: Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (C & WK), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

India: Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah

--IANS

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