Toss India elected to bowl vs Australia
Four days after the World Cup final, both teams face the tough task of playing in the five-match series.
Australia made several changes to shake up a potentially sluggish team trying to recover from partying.
Speculation surrounded whether Travis Head, player of the final with his century, would play after lively celebrations captured on social media.
He was left out from the XI, along with World Cup-winning teammates Glenn Maxwell and Adam Zampa. Steven Smith will open having batted successfully at the top for Sydney Sixers in last season’s BBL, and Josh Inglis will play as a specialist batter at No.3.
India has nearly a completely different team from the World Cup with Suryakumar the only player backing up from the final. He will captain India in place of injured T20 skipper Hardik Pandya. Ishan Kishan will take the gloves, and left-arm spinner Axar Patel returns.
The series might appear crowded in cricket’s calendar, but for both teams, it effectively starts preparation for next year’s T20 World Cup in the Caribbean and the USA.
The surface is expected to be hard and good for batting amid humid conditions.
India: 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 3 Yashasvi Jaiswal 4 Ishan Kishan (wk), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Rinku Singh, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Mukesh Kumar, 11 Prasidh Krishna
Australia: 1 Steven Smith, 2 Matthew Short, 3 Josh Inglis 4 Aaron Hardie, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Wade (capt, wk), 8 Sean Abbott, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Jason Behrendorff, 11 Tanveer Sangha