India vs Australia: After capturing the Test series 2-1, Team India will now show its strength in the three-match ODI series against Australia. The first match of the series will be played in Mumbai on Friday. With the preparations for the World Cup to be held later this year, the eyes of the Indian team will be on testing the captaincy of all-rounder Hardik Pandya. This match will be played at Wankhede Stadium from 1.30 pm.
Regular captain Rohit Sharma will not be available for this match due to family reasons. In his absence, Pandya will lead the team. Under the captaincy of Pandya, Gujarat Giants won the title in their first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He has been commanding Team India in T20 International for some time now.
Indian team will come to prepare for the World Cup
With the victory of the four-match Border-Gavaskar series against Australia, Team India has confirmed the ticket for the World Test Championship final to be held in June. After that the Indian team will now focus on improving their preparation for the 50-over World Cup. The ODI World Cup will be held in India in October-November this year.
India won its last World Cup on home soil in 2011 under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Keeping this in mind, similar success would be expected from the team led by Rohit Sharma. The Indian team has made a great start this year by winning all the 6 matches in ODI format in two different series against Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
In these matches, Shubman Gill has scored 567 runs with three centuries and an average of 113.40. In the absence of Rohit in the first match, he will be under pressure to give a good start to the team. A similar performance would be expected from him after his Test century against Australia in the fourth and final match at Ahmedabad.
Kohli left behind his poor form
Kohli, who scored an innings of 186 runs in the Test in Ahmedabad, has already left behind his poor form in limited overs. He has scored 338 runs this year at an impressive average of 67.60 and will be eyeing 75 international hundreds against favorite rivals Australia. It will be interesting to see how Kohli faces Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa during this period. Zampa’s record against the Indian run machine has been excellent.
Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled together during an optional practice session here on Wednesday. Both these leg-spinners can become important weapons in the Indian attack in their ability to take wickets and in limited overs cricket. Kuldeep has been India’s best spinner this year with 11 wickets in five matches, while among fast bowlers, Mohammad Siraj has taken 14 wickets in the same number of matches.
Australia team will land without regular captain
Australia’s team has the ability to win the match under any circumstances despite the absence of regular captain Pat Cummins. The 5-time World Cup winning Australian team also wants to finalize its preparations for the World Cup to be held in October-November this year. Steve Smith will lead Australia in the absence of Cummins. The team did well under his captaincy in the last two Test matches.
Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are not available for this ODI series, but experienced batsman David Warner and all-rounder Ashton Agar have joined the national team. Both these players returned home during the Test series.
The two teams for the first ODI are as follows-
Indian team: Hardik Pandya (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Akshar Patel Jaydev Unadkat.
Australian team: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa.