Toss Australia chose to bat v India

Ricky Ponting celebrated his return to the Australian side by winning the toss and choosing to bat first in the third ODI of the seven-match series at Hyderabad. The overhead conditions were cloudy, and there was a chance of rain later in the day, but Ponting reckoned his team would be fine if they got through the early overs with the new ball.

Both teams made a change each to the side which played at Kochi - Ponting came in, but surprisingly, the in-form Brad Haddin made way for him and not Brad Hodge. India brought in Rohit Sharma for Ramesh Powar.

Already 1-0 down in the series, India need to put together a much stronger performance, especially after the first 20 overs in the field. They've managed early wickets in both games so far, but have then been thwarted by Australia's middle order. In conditions which should help the fast bowlers, the Indians have an opportunity to nail the early wickets and then keep the pressure on.

Australia, on the other hand, have been bolstered by Ponting's return, which should further strengthen an already formidable batting line-up. The selectors have gambled by keeping Hodge in the line-up, despite him scoring 0 and 3 in the first two games. Haddin, on the other hand, scored aggressive fifties in both matches.

There has been plenty of needle between the teams on the field so far, and while the captains have talked about keeping their emotions in check, it'll be interesting to see if the players can walk the talk when the pressure mounts.

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

India
1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Sourav Ganguly, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt, wk), 7 Rohit Sharma 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 Harbhajan Singh,10 Zaheer Khan, 11 Sreesanth