Oct 2 : Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss on a wet morning at Kochi and put Australia in to bat. With wet conditions delaying the start of play by 30 minutes there was plenty of time for conjecture on team composition and what the captain winning the toss would do, but this was all put to rest when the coin was tossed at 9.15am.

Dhoni's decision to put Australia in was a touch intriguing as he had already decided to play one fast bowler less, bringing Harbhajan Singh into the team to bolster a spin attack that already had Ramesh Powar in its midst. This meant that RP Singh, who bowled exceedingly well in the ICC World Twenty20 but went for runs in the first ODI against Australia at Bangalore, missed out.

India were forced to make another change, with Sourav Ganguly not recovering from a hamstring niggle in time to make the XI. This gave Robin Uthappa a chance. Australia, meanwhile, retained the side that racked up over 300 runs despite being reduced to 90 for 4 in the first match.

There was still plenty of uncertainty surrounding how the game would go, with plenty of moisture around. The humidity has always played a big part in matches at Kochi, but usually this is coupled with stifling heat. At the moment, though, the wet conditions might make it as difficult for the batsmen to play their strokes as the bowlers to do their thing.

Australia 1 Adam Gilchrist (capt/wk), 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Brad Hodge, 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Andrew Symonds, 6 Brad Haddin, 7 James Hopes, 8 Brad Hogg, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Mitchell Johnson, 11 Stuart Clark.

India 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ramesh Powar, 11 Sreesanth.