Raunak Kapoor, Cyrus Broacha, Irfan Pathan and Shaun Tait predict series winner for India v Australia ODI series (0:52)
Toss India won the toss and chose to bat
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Expecting the pitch to slow down considerably, India went against the ODI trend and chose to bat first in a move that according to their captain Virat Kohli was a “no-brainer”. With Axar Patel injured and his replacement Ravindra Jadeja having just arrived, India went in with two wristspinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. Ajinkya Rahane, as expected, replaced Shikhar Dhawan, who is on leave to tend to his unwell wife, at the top of the order. KL Rahul, who many believe is competing with Rahane for that slot of a reserve batsman who can both open and bat in the middle order, was left out to give Manish Pandey a go at No. 4.
Steven Smith said he was not sure what he should have done had he won the toss. Unlike India, Australia stacked their line-up with allrounders, giving Hilton Cartwright a debut and leaving Kane Richardson, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb and Aaron Finch out from the XI.
This was a resumption of hostilities after India and Australia played out a fascinating Test series at the start of the year. This five-ODI series was the most anticipated part of India’s home season, with a limited-over series with New Zealand and a full tour from Sri Lanka to follow.
India 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Virat Kohli (capt.), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 MS Dhoni, 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Hilton Cartwright, 3 Steven Smith (capt.), 4 Travis Head, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Nathan Coulter-Nile, 11 Adam Zampa
Source: ESPN Crickinfo