The second of four test matches between India and Australia gets under way at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Friday and and after a convincing win in the series opener India are 1-0 up.
The first test took place in Nagpur last week and India, who were favourites at around 4/6, won it by an innings and 132 runs.
Australia won the toss and opted to bat first but they could manage only 177 runs with Marnus Labuschagne's 49 the top score, Ravindra Jadeja took 5 wickets. In reply India posted 400 with Rohit Sharma making 120, Jadeja made 70 and Axar hit 84 down the order. Todd Murphy provided the only high point for Australia in taking 7 wickets.
In their second innings Australia folded completely, all out for 91 with Ashwin taking 5 wickets and Jadeja was award the MoM.
This was how the sides lined up in the first test
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Srikar Bharat (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Scott Boland
On the team news front Mitchell Starc could return for Australia who have also replaced Mitchell Swepson with Matthew Kuhnemann
Recent Form
India
India won both test matches in the series in Bangladesh in December by margins 188 runs and then 3 wickets. They lost to England in Birmingham by 7 wickets in July and back in March they won 2-0 at home to Sri Lanka (innings and 222 runs and then 238 runs)
Australia
Australia won a 3 match series at home to South Africa over Xmas and new year. They won the first contest by 6 wickets and the second by an innings and 182 runs before the third and final test was drawn.
Just prior to that Australia completed a 2 match series at home to West Indies and they won the first test by 164 runs and the second by 419 runs. In June / July last year they drew a 2 match series in Sri Lanka 1-1 and in March they won a 3 match series in Pakistan 1-0.
Recent Head to Head
The most recent series came in Australia in December 20 / January 21 and despite losing the opening match of a 4 game series India hit back to win 2-1.
In 2018/19 India also won a 4 match series 2-1 on Australian soil
Australia's most recent test matches in India came in Feb / March 2017 and again India were 2-1 winners
The Betting - 2nd Test Match
At the time of writing India are 12/25 to win the match with the draw at 11/2 and Australia are 100/30
Virat Kohli is 11/4 favourite to top score for India in the first innings and Steve Smith 5/2 to do likewise for Australia
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
Australia have it all to do to get back in the series, I expect an improved effort but the momentum is clearly with the hosts.
I'll look to the to the top 1st innings bat markets where Marnus Labuschagne is my pick for Australia and KL Rahul is given another chance for India.
Bets: Top India 1st Innings Run Scorer KL Rahul at 4/1 with Sunbet
Top Australia 1st Innings Run Scorer Marnus Labuschagne at 11/4 with Sunbet
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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