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India start their tour of Australia at the WACA in Perth. Follow all the action of the first ODI of this series on The Roar from 2:20pm (AEDT).
Australia and India are ranked one and two respectively in the ICC one-day rankings, but what makes this an even more interesting contest is both sides’ selectors have shown the wherewithal to experiment with the lineups.
World Cup winners Australia enter the series with five of their players absent from that tournament-winning final against New Zealand. Michael Clarke, Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin have all retired, Shane Watson has been dropped, while Mitchell Starc is injured.
India, after an underwhelming 2015 following their semi-final exit in the World Cup to Australia, have dropped Suresh Raina and Stuart Binny from the squad, while Mohammad Shami is last-minute exclusion on account of a re-injury.
This gives fans a chance to watch their sides rebuild in the lead-up to the next World Cup, to be played in England in 2019.
For Australia, there are no surprises at the top, with David Warner and Aaron Finch opening, and captain Steven Smith in at three.
George Bailey’s fine BBL05 form enables him a spot in the final XI at the expense of Shaun Marsh, who was himself going through a decent patch while Glenn Maxwell will be the first of three all-rounders to bat. Mitchell Marsh and James Faulkner are the other two, with the latter returning to the Australian international squad for the first time since that World Cup final in which he was the man of the match.
The pace bowling department sees Josh Hazlewood leading the attack, and with two debutants in Scott Boland and Joel Paris in as well.
Although India’s XI isn’t named, there will be new faces in the line-up.
Shami’s injury means India may have to play the little-known Barinder Sran for the first time in an ODI, while the absence of Raina could allow one of Manish Pandey or Gurkeerat Singh Mann to make the XI.
There’s also the case of the all-rounder’s spot at number seven, and depending on what the selectors think of Rishi Dhawan’s utility on a bouncy WACA, either he or Ravindra Jadeja could be selected.
Interestingly, Ishant Sharma didn’t play either of India’s two warm-up games, suggesting Dhawan could be played ahead of him, with both Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja as the two spinners.
India come into the series with a very poor record in Australia, having won just ten ODIs out of the 41 they have played in the country. They did win the tri-series title in 2008, there but had a woeful time in the lead-up to the World Cup last year, when they didn’t win a single game against Australia and England.
Can India turn things around? At WACA, which showed signs of pace and bounce during their two warm-up games, things could be difficult.
Follow the live scores and blog of this Australia vs India ODI from 2:20pm (AEDT), and post your comments in the section below.
Follow Suneer on Twitter @suneerchowdhary
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