World Cup 2023, Match 5 | Australia Predicted XI vs India

Arijit Kundu

image-lngddoz8Australia will take on India in the fifth match of the World Cup 2023 (Source: AP Photos)

By the time India and Australia play each other in the fifth game of the current 2023 World Cup, eight of the ten participating countries will experience the tournament's first encounter. The M. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai is ready to host this highly anticipated match between once fierce rivals who have now become acquaintances. The all-important clash will kickoff at 2:00 PM IST.

Shubman Gill contracting dengue infection and maybe needing some time to recover dealt a severe blow to the Indian team. He played a crucial role in the Rohit Sharma-led team's 2023 Asia Cup victory, which ended a five-year losing record. Due to poor weather conditions, neither of their exhibition matches against England nor the Netherlands were completed.

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On the other hand, Australia played South Africa and India prior to the World Cup warm-up matches. They lost the ODI series against South Africa 3-2 and against India 2-1. The team had lost five matches in a row during the run through both series. But thankfully they turned things around at the right time, ensuring to end the India series with a triumph. 

The Pat Cummins-led team were a part of two warm-up fixtures. The first once against Netherlands was curtailed down 23 runs per over contest where Australia batted and scored 166. When Netherlands were already six down for 80 odd runs, the rain cashed in to play spoilsport. They were successful in defeating Pakistan in their next exhibition game. 

It will be intriguing to see how things turn out this time because both teams have a long history of competing in World Cup stages. So let's quickly surface through the predicted XI of Australia vs India.


Openers: Mitch Marsh and David Warner.

This could be the very last World Cup of David Warner. The veteran has been a force to reckon for Australia at the top of the order. He has notched up 390 runs in ODIs in the year 2023 from just nine innings. The southpaw averages 43.33 in the period with three back-to-back half-centuries against the Indian side in the recent bilateral series.

In the absence of Travis Head who is nursing a fracture, Mitch Marsh is front-runner to open the innings with Warner. Marsh is a dynamic batter who does not shy away from attacking the bowlers early in the innings. He has a run per innings rate of 60.08 while.opening the batting in this particular format.

'The Bull' and 'The Bison' definitely form a destructive pair that could take on any particular opposition on their day.


Middle-Order: Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne

Steve Smith is a sureshot starter in the Australian XI and will be featuring at no. 3. He is one of the modern day greats and may be participating in his final World Cup.

On the other hand, Marnus Labuschagne has had some tough times in the recent past. He was pruned out of the squad initially but made a strong comeback, scoring century against South Africa and churning out impactful knocks against India. His performance made a strong case to be named as a replacement for injured Ashton Agar.

The tag team of Smith and Marnus works very well for Australia and the team would hope they keep complimenting each other with the bat.


All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green and Alex Carey

Glenn Maxwell made a perfect comeback to the team from a long gap. He played some competitive cricket in July before snapping four wickets against India in the third ODI. Moving on, Maxwell also earned runs with the bat in the warm-up fixture against Pakistan.

Another important all-rounder for Australia would be Cameron Green. He wasn't a straight starter in the XI but could make an appearance due to the hamstring injury of Marcus Stoinis. The Hulk was indeed seen to have forty-forty sessions of batting and bowling on Friday but the Australian may not hurry him right away.

And if wicketkeepers who can bat could be considered as an all-rounder, then Alex Carey is the man at no.7 for Australia. He has scored important runs in positions when the team him to fire and on most cases, Carey did not disappoint. He's in a decent touch with the bat and gets the nod ahead of Josh Inglis for the wicketkeeper's role.


Bowlers: Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood

The four horsemen of the chariot includes Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa. This is a bowling group that time and again been ever-effective with the ball and took crucial wickets whenever needed.

Starc recently earned a hat-trick against Netherlands in the Warm-up game. Cummins is yet to find his peak but is the skipper and will play. Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa have been more than decent with the ball in recent times.


Australia Predicted XI vs India

David Warner, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood