India win toss and bat in Melbourne

India have won the toss and will bat first in the Boxing Day Test after India captain Virat Kohli won the coin toss.

"It's going to get slower and slower as the game goes on and will be tough to bat on in the fourth innings," Kohli said.

Australia's co-captain Archie Schiller accompanied Tim Paine to the coin toss on a balmy Melbourne morning where the talk of the town was the patchy appearance of the MCG strip that will see the third Domain Test play out.

Schiller delivered a team talk to the Australians with a simple message: "Hit sixes and get wickets."

Wickets will be top of the Australians' agenda after Kohli asked them to bowl first, and Paine was happy with the toss result.

"I wasn't too sure (what to do if I won the coin toss), so I'm happy to be having a bowl to be honest," Paine said.

"There should be enough in it to get something out of it.

"Archie wanted to bat, but as I said this wicket is a little bit different to what it normally is."

MCG curator Matthew Page moved to ease fears about the state of the pitch for the Boxing Day Test, and said the surface used in the most recent JLT Sheffield Shield match at the venue should be disregarded.

The 22 yards in the middle of the MCG is under even greater scrutiny than normal this year following the lifeless track used for last summer’s Ashes Test against England, which was officially rated “poor” by the International Cricket Council and criticised widely by players and pundits.

The third of the three games this season was a sluggish drawn match between Victoria and Western Australia earlier this month, which raised fears of a repeat of last year’s Test.

But Page explained on Sunday that given he was pleased with the pitches produced for the opening two Shield matches, he tried something different for the third match, which he concedes backfired.

Australia and India had both confirmed their playing XI on Christmas Day, with both sides making changes for the key match with the series locked at 1-1.

Australia made one change to their XI for the third Domain Test, with Mitchell Marsh called in for Peter Handscomb.

India suffered a blow with team management confirming spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has not fully recovered from an abdominal strain and won't be available for the MCG Test.

Mayank Agarwal will make his debut, with Hanuma Vihari moving up to open the batting with both KL Rahul and Murali Vijay axed after underperforming in the first two Tests.

Rohit Sharma returns at No.6 after missing the second Test with a back injury, while Ravi Jadeja gets his opportunity with Bhuvneshwar Kumar left out after playing in Perth.

Australia XI: Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

India XI: Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, Hanuma Vihari, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah

Domain Test Series v India

Dec 6-10: India won by 31 runs

Dec 14-18: Australia won by 146 runs

Dec 26-30: Third Test, MCG

Jan 3-7: Fourth Test, SCG

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Archie Schiller

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar