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There is never a dull moment when Virat Kohli is on the field. Returning after a two-game rest, Kohli did not let the heat get the better of him in the dead rubber Rajkot ODI. While Steve Smith was struggling with the heat and was sitting on a chair with an ice pack on his head, Kohli walked up to Marnus Labuschagne and showed off his dance moves which brought a smile to the latter’s face. The video has been making rounds on social media.
Despite struggling with heat, Smith shared a 137-run partnership for the second wicket with Mitchell Marsh who scored 96 runs from 84 balls. Smith completed his 5,000 ODI runs and became the fourth-fastest Australian to achieve the feat. Smith scored 74 runs from 61 balls including eight fours and a six before he got out lbw to Mohammed Siraj in the 32nd over of the crease.
Earlier, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to field first. He gave a chance to Washington Sundar who is in contention to replace Axar Patel if the latter does not recover in time for ODI World Cup 2023. Ravichandran Ashwin was benched whereas Ishan Kishan missed out due to viral fever.
“Conditions are much better here, looks like there’s good weather. Decent temperature as well, we’re just looking forward to this game. The breaks are more important from a mental perspective than a physical one. Very happy with how we played, almost everything we wanted to do we got it done. Gives us a chance for us to see what we want to do. Looks a bit dry, it’s going to play slightly better under lights, we wanted to chase anyway. Let's see if we can make use of the two new balls. Myself, Virat, and Kuldeep are all back. From the last game, Ashwin is also missing, Washington is in. Ishan is not well, he’s got viral fever so he misses out,” Rohit said at the coin toss.
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Australia Playing XI: Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Tanveer Sangha, Josh Hazlewood
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