Aus v Ind 5th ODI Preview: Aussies eye clean sweep in Sydney

After hammering India throughout the series, the home side will be looking to make it 5-0 at the famous Sydney Cricket Ground. India lost 9 for 46 after centuries from Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan in the previous ODI and the Aussies will be mighty impressed with the effort of their bowlers. India on the other hand, will play for pride which has already been battered and bruised.

Australia:

In the first three matches in this ODI series Australia either dominated at times or just hung in there to pull off a win as India kept making mistakes. The visitors meanwhile just gifted away the 4^th ODI to the home side. There seems little reason for Australia to make changes to their winning side, with Shaun Marsh and Scott Boland likely to sit out once again – unless Glenn Maxwell does not recover sufficiently from the soreness in his knee resulting from a knock he suffered while batting in Canberra.

Nathan Lyon still hasn’t reached double figures in terms of ODI matches played however will be looking to make an impact in the shorter formats as well. The fact that he was asked to open the bowling in the previous ODI shows the confidence smith has in his off-spinners ability.  The Sydney pitch should offer a little more turn and Lyon will relish bowling on it. Five of Australia’s bowlers have economy rates under six in this series which is highly impressive. The team will eye win number 19 along with a whitewash.

India:

The challenge for India is to lift themselves up after such a demoralising defeat. Their first bilateral one-day series in Australia has been nothing short of a major disappointment for the team and its fan. The inability to restrict Australia on good batting surfaces has hurt the team badly. Perhaps the sight of an SCG surface offering more spin could lift the mood of the team.

So long have India’s top-order men batted in this series that MS Dhoni has been reduced largely to cameos. His duck started India’s collapse in Canberra and he later declared his own wicket the turning point. If in Sydney the runs flow a little less freely for the top order batsmen, it might be time for Dhoni to make a substantial contribution. The injured Ajinkya Rahane is likely to miss the Sydney game, which could mean a return for Manish Pandey. R Ashwin should come back to replace one of the seamers while Axar Patel may also be considered for the first time in the series.

Form guide: (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Australia: WWWWW

India: LLLLL

Australia (possible): 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 George Bailey, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9, John Hastings, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Nathan Lyon.

India (possible) 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Gurkeerat Singh, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Ishant Sharma.

Stats:

1. India will drop from No. 2 to No. 3 on the ODI rankings if they lose this match.

2. Australia has now won 18 consecutive ODIs at home, last losing to South Africa in Perth in November 2014.