New Chandigarh, Sep 17 (IANS) Renuka Singh Thakur and Arundhati Reddy have made a return to the Indian team line-up, as Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first in the second ODI at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Australia are leading the three-match ODI series 1-0 after winning the opening game by eight wickets. India, aiming to bounce back in the second game, will be delighted with Renuka coming into the playing eleven after she last featured in an ODI game in December 2024 against the West Indies.

A stress fracture after WPL 2025 had kept her on the sidelines and Renuka is now all set to start for the Indian team in 50-over format. She and Arundhati come in for left-arm spinner N Shree Charani and Jemimah Rodrigues, who was earlier ruled out of the series due to viral fever.

The duo coming in also means India have six bowling options in hand, after their plan to go in with five bowlers in the series opener didn’t go well. “We are okay with that, we wanted to bat today. There are a few things we want to improve, about the matchups and when to take on the bowler and all those things.”

“Hopefully we want to execute better today. Renuka is always there whenever we needed her, so it is good to have her back in the side,” said India skipper Harmanpreet Kaur.

Australia captain Alyssa Healy said Darcie Brown and Georgia Voll come in for Kim Garth and Phoebe Litchfield respectively. “Love the way wicket came on under the lights. Couple of nice days off, everyone is in a really good place which we are really happy about. Always a few areas we can improve on, there is always little things we can tinker about and that is what this series is all about,” she said.

Playing XIs

India: Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Harleen Deol, Harmanpreet Kaur (captain), Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Sneh Rana, Arundhati Reddy, Radha Yadav, Renuka Singh Thakur, and Kranti Goud

Australia: Alyssa Healy (captain & wk), Georgia Voll, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Annabel Sutherland, Ashleigh Gardner, Tahlia McGrath, Georgia Wareham, Alana King, Darcie Brown, and Megan Schutt

–IANS

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