R Ashwin and Harshit Rana has been dropped from the Indian playing XI, with Akash Deep and Ravindra Jadeja coming in.

India vs Australia, 3rd Test: India captain Rohit has won the toss and without any hesitation he opted to bat first in the third Test of the five-match Test series at Gabba in Brisbane on Saturday.

Series locked 1-1

India won the first test by 295 runs at Perth, Western Australia while Australia came back to win the second day-night test in Adelaide by an equally emphatic 10 wickets.

Toss update

Captain Rohit Sharma elected to bowl under cloudy skies.

“A little bit overcast. Bit of grass and looks soft,” Rohit said at the toss.

“We want to try to make the best use of the conditions and see what we can do with the ball up-front.

“We will try and do what is expected out of us.”

Jadeja comes in for Ashwin

Ravindra Jadeja has replaced R Ashwin. In the third consecutive Test India have rotated their spinning allrounder following Washington Sundar’s appearance in the series opener at Perth.

Akash Deep replaces Harshit Rana

India named Akash Deep to play his first Test outside India with Harshit Rana dropped following his wicketless outing in their 10-wicket defeat in Adelaide. Akash Deep has played five Tests so far in his career.

Hazlewood returns

Pat Cummins had confirmed on match eve that Scott Boland was the unfortunate bowler to make way for the returning Josh Hazlewood, who missed in Adelaide due to a side strain.

Playing XIs

Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitch Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

India XI: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep