Kohli & his boys skip practice, while Aussies train hard ahead of series decider at Kotla

Dhawan, Rohit takes part in sponsors photo shoot, Stoinis recovering from broken thumb

Debasis Sen, New Delhi: It was a contrasting picture here at the Feroz Shah Kotla ahead of the ODI series decider against Australia. While the world champions slogged it out in the nets at the venue, hosts India had a break from practice. The series is leveled 2-2 with one more match in the five match series. The visitors gave a good account of themselves, coming back after trailing 0-2 in the series. With back to back wins, Finch and his team will be eyeing a double having already won the T20I series.

As far as India is concerned, the cricketers were given a break in order to keep them fresh and charged. According to Bharat Arun, the bowling coach of Team India, “We want to be physically and mentally fresh for the big game.”
The Australians had two former cricketers Mathew Hayden and Mitchell Johnson to share their valuable inputs during the practice. Left hander Hayden was seen having a long chat with Finch at the nets as the captain would look to produce the knock he played in Ranchi where he and Khawaja shared a century opening stand. Johnson on the other hand was seen having a chat with bowling coach Troy Cooley and coach Justin Langer. The left hander also rolled his arms at the nets against Marcus Stoinis. The visitors will probably play the strongly built all- rounder who looked to have completely recovered from the broken thumb injury which kept him out in the Mohali game. Stoinis is likely to replace Jhye Richardson.

Indians on the other hand is also likely to make a few changes with Shami coming back in the playing eleven. The cricketers had a gym and pool session in the hotel. Few cricketers also took part in the official photo shoot for one of the prime sponsors of the team, definitely bound to raise some eyebrows. Openers Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan , Kedar Jadhav and Jasprit Bumrah were part of the photo shoot of one of the main sponsors of the team. It goes to be seen whether the home team can turn aside the morale thrashing defeat in Mohali and bounce back to win the ODI series.