Mouth-watering finale on card

India have featured in ten one-day international series at home since the 2015 World Cup, and seven of these bilateral series have gone down to the wire. Ergo, the results of each of these series have hinged on the final contest.

The trend remains unchanged as India take on Australia for the crown when the sides engage in the third and final ODI at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Sunday with the series locked at one game apiece.

Virat Kohli and Co will be aware of what unfolded the last time these sides met in a bilateral series in India - the hosts lost the five-game series 3-2 after going down in the decider in Delhi last year - and will be cautious to avoid an identical error. The only real missing piece in that ODI was a misfiring middle-order.

As then so now, the stress will remain on the middle-order. Pushing KL Rahul down the order to No. 5 after Shreyas Iyer, yielded 340 runs in the series-leveller at Rajkot with the Karnataka lad belting a voluptuous 80. But with openers Rohit Sharma (shoulder) and Shikhar Dhawan (rib cage) copping blows during the same game, it will be interesting to see if Rahul is pushed up the order should the need arise.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India shot out a press note on the eve of the final, stating that a call on their availability for the playing XI will be made before the game.

That said, Kohli, even with his penchant for experimenting with the bigger picture (aka T20 World Cup) in mind, will want to retain the combination from the previous game with this being a series decider.

Should that be the case, and should Rishabh Pant be rested for another game owing to his concussion recovery, Rahul is likely to keep another game, though, KS Bharat has been called up as a back-up wicketkeeper for Pant.

As for their bowling, Jasprit Bumrah shrugged the rust which was evident in his first game back for the side with a performance worthy of the hype in Rajkot. Mohammed Shami was the pick in the wickets’ column but wasn’t nearly as effective when Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne settled in. India depended on its spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja to break the visitors’ back in that stiff chase.

Negligible dew levels certainly helped Kuldeep who was able to grip the ball better than he did in the first ODI in Mumbai. Bengaluru isn’t going to see much dew either so the chinaman will have some work to do. Also, Kohli might toy with the idea of playing Yuzvendra Chahal on his Royal Challengers Bangalore home ground.

In the end, unless both Rohit and Dhawan are out - which is highly unlikely - and should Jadeja retain his place for his consistency, the side isn’t going to look much too different.

Australia’s rationale will remain much the same as they are likely to stick to what has gotten them this far. A solid batting line-up, some fiery paceman, and a spinner - Adam Zampa - who has Kohli’s number. The Ashtons in the side - Agar and Turner - haven’t had the best of series so far, and Kane Richardson, who has conceded 116 runs for four wickets in 19.1 overs, isn’t looking particularly assured of his spot, especially with Josh Hazlewood on the sidelines.

Aaron Finch, the Australian skipper, could tweak it around a bit, an application of the horses-for-courses policy perhaps, but only with an eye of extending Australia’s record to 6-4 in bilateral engagements in India.

India, for their part, will want to show the No.4 ranked side in the world how the No. 2 ranked side in the world got to where it is. There's also the not-so-little matter of pride at home.