Australia vs India Prediction: Backing against Virat Kohli in 3rd ODI

Jamie Pacheco previews the third and final ODI of the Series between Australia and India, which will be played at Sydney on Saturday. The match will start at 04:30 and be broadcast live on TNT Sports.  

Jamie has a 7/1 shot for top Australian batsman and is going all guns blazing to take on Virat Kohli by shortening his runs. You can check out his preview and Australia vs India Predictions below...  

*You can check out all of our Cricket Odds over at betfred.com

Team News:

Australia  

The Aussies were good value for their win with a decent performance with the ball followed by a nervy chase where run rate was never an issue, but the number of wickets lost, was.  

In the end, impressive youngster Cooper Connolly played like a seasoned veteran with a calm, unbeaten 61 off 53. It was his first ever international fifty, but you wouldn't have thought so by how easy he made it look.  

Earlier in the innings, Matt Short showed some class rather than just big-hitting with 74 off 78, while Mitch Owen's 36 off 23 was a good contribution to the cause, as well.   

But the most important man of all was Adam Zampa, the spinner taking 4-60 to restrict India to 264 which was a chaseable total. He was the Player of the Match and deservedly so.  

Both Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc played the first two matches so with the Series won, it would be astounding if either of them played, let alone both.  

Alex Carey was preferred to our top Aussie bat selection, Josh Philippe, so it will be interesting to see who keeps in this one.  

India 

Virat Kohli made it two ducks in a row. A reminder that even one of the greatest batsmen to have ever lived needs to get some practice in before facing some of the world's best bowlers.  

Rohit Sharma on the other hand, hit a fine 73 off 97. Shreyas Iyer was good for his 61 off 77, and our 14/1 selection Axar Patel was certainly in contention when going well on 44 off 41 and with plenty of time to get past Sharma. But he ended up being one of Zampa's four victims.  

Axar was good with the ball, too, as were Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar, and Arshdeep Singh, but Ntish Reddy looks like a bit of a passenger.  

It's hard to understand why Kuldeep Yadav keeps getting left out when he was in the form of his life going into this Series.

Pitch and Conditions

We're at Sydney for this one and it's another day-nighter. 

Australia has won six of its last seven matches here, the other one being a match between Australia and New Zealand that was cancelled due to the pandemic.  

In 2020, against India, the Aussies managed 374 first up, then two days later got an even bigger 398, also against India. In 2022, they batted first again, this time against England, and managed 280, before batting first yet again when the West Indies came to town, getting 258. They defended the lot, but it's certainly been a while since they chased here. 

So, they'll probably look to bat first again and aim for 330 or more.   

Match Winner odds. 

Australia is 4/6 (60% implied probability), while India is 6/5, or 45.5%. If you hadn't noticed, those are exactly the same prices as last time.  

If you were going to have a bet on the outsiders in any of the matches in this Series, then this might be the one. There's always a slight danger of complacency when you've won the Series and I'd be amazed if at least one of Starc or Hazlewood doesn't sit this one out. One would be a big loss, if it's both that would deprive the Aussies of two of their most potent weapons.  

Then again, this isn't the sort of team to ever be complacent, even if they were playing tiddlywinks. And they've won each of their last six here, so they certainly know how to win ODI matches at the SCG. One to leave alone.  

*For all the latest and live Australia vs India Odds then head over to betfred.com 

Top Australia Batsman

Our bet on Josh Philippe was void because he didn't play. But Alex Carey did, and though he only got 9 off 17, he 'll have been better for the run after having played a Sheffield Shield match the week before. I was surprised that he batted at five rather than four, four being where Philippe had batted, but Carey may bat a spot higher this time round.  

He's got a good record in ODIs, with one century and 13 fifties averaging 35. A lot of those games were with him batting at 6 or 7, so he's probably a better ODI batter than those numbers suggest.  

Either way, 7/1 is just the sort of value price we like around here on a man who will get a fair crack of the whip, has some real class and is mainly surrounded by (internationally) inexperienced batsmen in this Series.  

Virat Kohli Total Runs Over/Under 29.5

It takes a brave and stubborn man to take on the great Virat Kohli, but then again, I'm a brave and stubborn man.  

Betfred has set the line at 29.5 runs and his ODI average of 57 makes a mockery of that. But then again, he didn't get the bulk of those thousands of ODI runs at the age of 36, nor did he do so after having played no cricket at all for the best part of five months. A reminder these two games he played in the last week were the first he'd featured in since the IPL in early June.  

Though he averages an excellent 42 against Australia in Australia, his average drops considerably when playing here at the SCG. These are his scores in the seven innings he's played here:  21, 3, 1, 8, 21 and 89 not out.  

So, he doesn't particularly like it here in Sydney: on just one occasion out of seven, did he pass that mark of 29.5 runs. Add that indifferent record at the SCG to his rustiness and, whisper it quietly, a possible lack of confidence, and we may have a very good bet on our hands.  

Jamie Pacheco Cricket P/L 2025:

• Points Staked: 115 
• Points Returned: 105.41 
• Current P/L: -8.59 

Jamie Pacheco predominantly covers Cricket and European Football for us at Betfred Insights. You can check out his Cricket Betting Tips, along with those from the rest of the team, at our Cricket hub page...