Clarke out as Australia opt to bat; Rahane set for debut

By IANS,

New Delhi: Australia’s stand-in captain Shane Watson won the toss and opted to bat against India in the inconsequential fourth Test at the Feroze Shah Kotla here Friday.


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Watson became the 44th Australian Test captain after skipper Michael Clarke failed to recover from chonic back pain.

Australia also made four other changes – Matthew Wade comes in for Brad Haddin; Mitchell Johnson and James Pattinson for Mitchell Starc and Xavier Doherty and Glenn Maxwell for Moises Henriques.

India made one change – Ajinkya Rahane will be making his debut, replacing local boy Shikhar Dhawan, who fractured his left hand during the Mohali Test.

India are leading 3-0 in the series and are looking at a historic 4-0 whitewash against Australia.

India: Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Sachin Tendulkar,
Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain/wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma

Australia: David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phil Hughes, Shane Watson (captain), Steve Smith, Matthew Wade (wicketkeeper), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Nathan Lyon.

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