India eye to level series in the Hyderabad ODI …

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting elected to bat in the third One-Dayer against India at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Friday.

Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, who had failed to get their team off to good starts in the first two matches, made their intentions clear from the very first over.

The visitors were off to a flier even though the opening pair did not play many big shots, preferring to take singles and twos.

Ponting replaced Brad Haddin, who was the Man of the Match in the second One-Dayer. The Aussie skipper missed the first two ODIs of the seven-match series due to a hamstring injury.

The Hyderabad match is also a landmark in Ponting's career as it is the 150th time that he is leading the One-Day team.

India, too, made one change from the team that played in the second ODI at Kochi, bringing in Rohit Sharma in place of Ramesh Powar.

The Teams:

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK, C), Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Rohit Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, S Sreesanth.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (C), Adam Gilchrist (WK), Matthew Hayden, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Stuart Clark, James Hopes, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson.