"They want to play Harshit Rana at No. 8" - Former RCB star on India's playing XI for AUS vs IND 2025 2nd T20I

Former Indian and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) cricketer Dinesh Karthik doesn't believe the Men in Blue need to make any changes to their XI for the second T20I against Australia on Friday, October 31, at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Karthik reckons India want to play Harshit Rana at number eight to offset the loss of Nitish Kumar Reddy.

With Reddy, the seam-bowling all-rounder, out for the first three games of the five-game series, India played Harshit Rana as the second specialist seamer alongside Jasprit Bumrah. Rana, notably, added some crucial runs in the second ODI against Australia, but the non-selection of Arshdeep Singh drew plenty of criticism.

When asked whether Team India will make any changes, the 40-year-old, who is now RCB's mentor, said on Cricbuzz (1:33):

"No. As much as I like the show to be long, no. I don’t think they will make any changes because Nitish Kumar Reddy is not there, so they want to play Harshit Rana at No.8 to get that batting."

The former keeper-batter stated that it was hard to draw a conclusion from a rain-hit game and expected Australia to turn up with an unchanged XI as well. He elaborated (2:15):

"If you look at them, Josh Hazlewood is obviously going to play one game, so it’s going to be the same. The one change they might be tempted is if looking at Bartlett, if they can bring in a left-arm option which I don’t think they will do, considering how well he bowled in the second ODI. So, I think they will also play the same eleven. Don’t think you can tell much. If you go after this game and drop a player and say we are moving on, ‘he will say why?’ Then you don’t have anywhere to go."

Mitchell Marsh had won the toss in the first T20I in Canberra and opted to bowl first. Although Australia had dismissed Abhishek Sharma for 19, India still reached 97/1 in 9.4 overs before rain washed out the entire game.

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"He got a superb 80-90, he smashed us" - Dinesh Karthik recalls LSG vs RCB clash

When asked to pick the player to watch out for, the former RCB star chose Suryakumar Yadav for India and Marsh for Australia. Recalling Marsh's 37-ball 67 against RCB in IPL 2025, he stated (3:33):

"Suryakumar Yadav for India, Mitchell Marsh from Australia. He got a superb 80-90, he smashed us. I remember in Lucknow, that battle very well."

The first T20I ever hosted by MCG was also between India and Australia in 2008.

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Edited by Sankalp Srivastava