Confident India look to winning start against Australia

Chennai: The Test series in February and March was a heated one filled with drama. More importantly, the cricket was top-notch, with Australia giving India a run for its money although the home side ended up winning the four-match series 2-1.

It was the first time in many years that a visiting side not only competed, but also nearly pushed India to a corner.

India’s home advantage will relatively reduce in the limited-overs versions, which promises another stiff contest between the sides.

India, though, still starts as the favourite. It will head into a stretch of limited-overs cricket at home having swept Sri Lanka across formats recently, and the team is gradually becoming a ruthless unit with players for every condition and situation.

That’s evident from India's tremendous success in ODIs over the last two years; the last time India lost a bilateral ODI series was in early 2016 when it was beaten 4-1 by Australia Down Under. This, apart from a run to the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 in June.

The string of success automatically means India is already in preparation mode for the ICC World Cup 2019. With every passing series, the options are increasing the pool for every department is widening.

India also made public its intention to rotate players and be more unpredictable in strategy, which was evident in the Sri Lanka series. Only Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah played all five ODIs.

Shikhar Dhawan’s absence for the first three ODIs could be a blessing in disguise in terms of answering those questions. In all likelihood, Ajinkya Rahane – deservedly - will get another chance at the top of the order before Dhawan reclaims his position.

Following a Test tour that brought equal success and failure in Bangladesh, Australia arrives on Indian shores with inexperience in key areas. With Aaron Finch injured and set to miss the first few games, the onus is on David Warner and Smith to show the way to the likes of Hilton Cartwright and Peter Handscomb.

There is some inexperience in the bowling department too. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson are tending to minor injuries back home, and it’s up to Pat Cummins to lead a pace attack that also has Nathan Coulter-Nile and Kane Richardson.

Australia will welcome the addition of James Faulkner, who has been recalled to the one-day team after missing out on a Champions Trophy berth. The allrounder will have good memories of the ODI series in India in 2013, where he smashed 230 runs from four innings at a strike-rate in excess of 150.

Teams from

India: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami.

Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Adam Zampa and Peter Handscomb

Pitch and conditions
There is a forecast for thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon.

Stats and trivia

• Since January 2013, the average first-innings score in games between India and Australia is 321.
• In that same period, Rohit Sharma has scored 1104 runs in 13 matches against Australia, at an average of 110.4 and a strike rate of 102.88

Match facts
Sunday Sept. 17, 2017 (d/n)
Start time 1330 local (0800 GMT)