Cricket: India put into bat by Clarke

Virender Sehwag. Photo / Getty Images

Australia captain Michael Clarke won the toss and put India into bat first in the third cricket test at the WACA ground in Perth on Friday.

Australia lead the four-test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2-0 following victories in Melbourne and Sydney.

Both teams named all-pace attacks on the fast and bouncy WACA surface. Leftarm fast bowler Mitchell Starc replaced offspinner Nathan Lyon in one of the two changes made by Australia to the team that won in Sydney by an innings and 68 runs. The other change was seam bowler Ryan Harris replacing injured swing bowler James Patterson.

India brought in test debutante Vinay Kumar to replace offspinner and allrounder Ravi Ashwin.

Teams:

Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), David Warner, Ed Cowan, Shaun Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin, Peter Siddle, Ryan Harris, Mitchell Starc, Ben Hilfenhaus.

India: MS Dhoni (capt), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Umesh Yadav.

Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), Kumar Dharmasena (SRL).

Match Referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI).

Third Umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS).

- AAP