Australia make two changes for second ODI

Australia have made two changes to their XI for the second one-day international on their Qantas Tour of India, with leg-spinner Adam Zampa and allrounder James Faulkner dropped and left-arm tweaker Ashton Agar and seamer Kane Richardson coming into the side.

India captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first on an overcast afternoon in Kolkata.

Agar has been named to play his first ODI in more than two years, his recall coming after he returned to the Test side on the recent Test tour of Bangladesh.

AUSTRALIA XI: Steven Smith (c), David Warner, Hilton Cartwright, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Kane Richardson.

INDIA XI: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.

Richardson, a bustling right-armer from South Australia, will play his first international match in nearly 18 months. He replaces Faulkner, who took 1-67 and struck an unbeaten 32 in the first ODI in Chennai.

Zampa's axing comes as a somewhat of a surprise; he took 1-66 in Australia's series-opening 26-run rain-affected defeat on Sunday but has a superb record in the 50-over arena.

The leggie has been a fixture for Australia's ODI side away from home especially, with 21 of his 25 ODIs being played abroad.

While Zampa returned unflattering figures in Chennai, it included one 24-run over against Hardik Pandya. The leggie took 1-42 from nine overs apart from Pandya's blitz.

Agar said last week expect he didn't expect to unseat Zampa as Australia's No.1 spinner on the five-match tour.

"Adam is obviously the frontline spinner in the squad," Agar said. "He's bowled really well in these conditions in the IPL and on previous tours.

"I'm sure 'Zamps' is the first spinner picked and I know he'll do really well against the right-handers.

"Obviously it's better to spin the ball away because it's harder to play.

Originally included for only the T20 leg of the tour, Richardson was a late replacement for injured spearhead Josh Hazlewood in the ODI squad.

Richardson last pulled on Australian gold during the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series in New Zealand in February 2016 and has played 15 international limited-overs matches all up.

"I'm a bit of a realist and know it takes a few injuries to get the nod," the 26-year-old said prior to flying out for India.

"But it's always nice to get an opportunity to play for Australia. I'm not going to turn that down but there's obviously three or four first-line bowlers that are injured at the moment."

"For me, it's all about being the next guy in if I can be.

"There's a lot of good quicks around the country, that's always been an area of strength of ours."

While the famous Eden Gardens has been eagerly anticipating the clash between the 50-over heavyweights, both teams' preparations have been affected by heavy showers.

Australia's Qantas Tour of India

Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.

India squad (first three ODIs): Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.

ODI Fixtures

September 17: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

September 21: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

September 24: Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore

September 28: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

October 1: VCA Stadium, Nagpur

T20 Fixtures

October 1: JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi

October 10: Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati

October 13: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad