Australia are persisting with their three-pronged spin attack of their third Test against India, while the hosts made two changes in their side in Indore on Wednesday.

Trailing 2-0 in the series, and with captain Pat Cummins returning home for personal reasons, Australia welcomed back Mitchell Starc from a finger injury as the only full-time pacer bowler in the line-up.

Also coming into the visiting side is all-rounder Cameron Green, with the injured David Warner joining Cummins as the outs, leaving Travis Head and Usman Khawaja to open the batting. Matt Renshaw had replaced Warner mid-game in the second Test as a concussion sub.

Retaining their places are the spinning trio of Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann, while the addition of Green for Warner gives the Australians another weapon in their pace attack.

For India, K.L. Rahul was dropped and Mohammed Shami was rested, with opening batsman Shubman Gill and fast bowler Umesh Yadav taking their place. India won the toss and elected to bat.

Kuldeep Yadav's exclusion from India's squad to face Bangladesh was a "management call", with team-mate Umesh Yadav describing the decisions as something people had to accept.

The fast bowler took eight wickets as the tourists sealed the first Test in Chittagong in style and was expected to keep his place for the second and final game in Mirpur.

But Kuldeep was excluded to make way for an additional pace option in Jaydev Unadkat, who played his first red-ball match for India in over a decade in his place.

The call from coach Rahul Dravid caught many by surprise, but Umesh was unmoved in his post-stumps assessment, simply indicating his omission was nothing out of the ordinary.

"It's part of your journey," he said. "It happened to me. Sometimes you are out of the team because of performance.

"Sometimes it's a management call. You have to go with the team's requirements. It's good for him."

Unadkat, playing in his second Test match a dozen years after he debuted as a teenager at Centurion against South Africa, repaid the faith with two wickets, including that of first-Test centurion Zakir Hasan.

Umesh was delighted to see him earn a second chance, adding: "When he made his debut, I was with him in South Africa. I'm very happy that he finally got his chance.

"When he came in to bowl with the new ball, [it] was doing a bit. We know [he] can swing it both ways, so he just had to keep bowling in the right areas."

India will resume on day two in Mirpur trailing by 208 runs.

Andre Russell blasted a blistering unbeaten half-century and Umesh Yadav claimed his best Indian Premier League figures as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Punjab Kings by six wickets.

KKR moved to the top of the table with an emphatic victory at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday after bowling the Kings out for 137 all out off 18.2 overs.

Yadav took 4-23 off his four excellent overs as Punjab fell well short of posting a challenging target, Bhanuka Rajapaksa top scoring with 31 and Kagiso Rabada making 25 down the order on his debut.

The new-look Kings side crumbled from 62-2 in the sixth over, with dangerous duo Shikhar Dhawan and Liam Livingstone getting starts but failing to go on.

Tim Southee claimed 2-36, while Sunil Narine took 1-23 from his full compliment of overs, and Russell removed Rabada with the first ball he bowled before ending Punjab's innings by whipping off the bails to run Arshdeep Singh out off the next delivery.

Rabada removed Ajinkya Rahane, who reached the 4,000-run IPL milestone before falling for 12, and Venkatesh Iyer was dismissed by Odean Smith for only three.

It appeared to be game on when Rahul Chahar saw the back of Shreyas Iyer (26) and Nitish Rana, reducing KKR to 51-4 seven overs into their run chase.

But West Indies all-rounder Russell then took centre stage, bludgeoning 71 not out from only 31 balls in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 90 with Sam Billings to get the Knight Riders home with 33 balls to spare.

Yadav takes purple cap

Seamer Yadav set the tone by trapping Mayank Agarwal leg before in a first over of the match that went for only two runs after Shreyas Iyer won the toss and put the Kings in.

He also had Livingstone caught in the deep, cleaned Harpreet Brar up and sent Chahar on his way to become the leading wicket-taker early in the tournament with eight from three matches.

Russell fit for the Kings

Russell was an injury doubt due to a shoulder problem, but he was firing on all cylinders as he put on yet another show to take over as the leading run-scorer in the 2022 IPL.

The Jamaican powerhouse struck eight sixes in a brutal knock, three of those coming off Smith in a 12th over that went for 30 runs. Russell finished off the job in style by launching Livingstone over the rope in successive deliveries.

A gripping series is perfectly poised ahead of a mouthwatering day-night Test between India and England at the spectacular Motera Stadium. 

Although the capacity will be halved due to coronavirus restrictions amid the pandemic, there will still be up to 55,000 allowed into the biggest cricket venue in the world for the third Test in Ahmedabad.  

Ravichandran Ashwin was the star of the show on his home ground in Chennai as India levelled the series at 1-1, the all-rounder taking match figures of 8-96 and scoring a sublime second-innings century on a pitch that turned sharply from day one. 

The seamers will be hoping playing under floodlights with a pink ball will give them more of a chance to make an impact when the third Test starts on Wednesday, though spin will still be expected to play a major part in proceedings. 

India paceman Ishant Sharma is poised to make his 100th appearance in the longest format, while Ashwin is closing in on 400 Test scalps. 

James Anderson and Jofra Archer are set to return to the England side, with Chris Woakes pushing for a place along with Jonny Bairstow and Mark Wood - the latter two are back in the squad after being given a break following the tour of Sri Lanka. 

England all-rounder Moeen Ali will not feature after heading home and India have brought fast bowler Umesh Yadav into the squad, releasing Shardul Thakur. 

Captain Joe Root gave nothing away when asked about selection on the eve of the match. 

He said: "We are going to take our time with the limited information we have on this ground, on pink-ball cricket. We are going to make sure we give ourselves as much information as possible before we make that decision."

 

Century up for Ishant, Ashwin closing in on 400

Ishant is set to become only the 11th player for India to reach 100 Tests, having already marked this series with a milestone after taking his 300th wicket in the longest format. 

The pace bowler has taken 76 Test scalps at an average of just 19.3 since 2018 and could thrive in the conditions. 

Ashwin, the hero of the second Test, is just six wickets short of the 400 landmark - a feat only Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev and Harbhajan Singh have achieved for India. 

The off-spinner has taken 17 wickets in the series at 17.82 apiece with a strike rate of 40.4. Jack Leach is the second-highest wicket-taker with 12.

 

Anderson ready to shine under the lights

After playing a big hand in England's victory in the first Test in Chennai, Anderson was understandably frustrated to be omitted for the second match at the same venue.

The seamer said he understands the tourists' rotation policy in such a demanding year, though, and is raring to go with the pink ball.

England's leading Test wicket-taker has claimed 14 scalps at an average of 17.85 in three day-night Tests and should pose a massive threat to the India batsmen.

He said: "All the seam bowlers want really is a bit of carry, which we haven't really had throughout the series. We're keeping our fingers crossed there's a bit more in it for the seamers."

Key match facts

- India were bowled out for only 36 in their last day-night Test against Australia in Adelaide in December. England also endured a pink-ball nightmare when they were skittled out for just 58 by New Zealand in March 2018. 

- India have managed one win and a defeat in their two day-night Tests. England have been beaten in two of the three day-night contests they have played in the longest format.  

- This will be the third Test encounter between India and England at Motera Stadium. India have won once there, with Cheteshwar Pujara making a Test-best 206 not out in November 2012. The other meeting ended in a draw. 

- Only Niroshan Dickwella (seven in 19 games) has claimed more Test stumpings than Ben Foakes since November 2018 (five). The England wicketkeeper has only played six Tests in that time. 

- Rory Burns has been dismissed by Ashwin in three of his four innings in the series, scoring just 33 runs. 

Umesh Yadav has replaced Shardul Thakur in India's squad to face England in the final two Tests of their four-match series.

Virat Kohli's men responded to their 227-run defeat in the opening match with an even more resounding 317-run triumph this week.

After those matches in Chennai, the series will conclude with back-to-back games in Ahmedabad - the first of which will be a day-night Test.

That might mean an increased emphasis on seam bowling, making Umesh's return from the calf injury he sustained during the Boxing Day Test against Australia in Melbourne timely.

The 33-year-old, who has 148 Test wickets at 30.54, will undergo a fitness test before joining up with his team-mates and a fast-bowling group of Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj.

Thakur has not featured in the England series and was released alongside reserves Priyank Panchal, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shahbaz Nadeem to take part in India's domestic 50-over competition.

Opening batsman Easwaran being allowed to depart suggests the forearm injury that kept Shubman Gill off the field on day four of the second Test is not something that will threaten his participation next week.

 

India squad for the third and fourth Tests against England: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav.

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