India Bowl Under Cloudy Skies

Sydney: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and chose to bowl against Australia in the first Twenty20 match at the ANZ stadium in Sydney on Wednesday.

Rahul Sharma, the leg spinner, debut for India. Vinay plays but no Irfan Pathan.

The Indians slumped to their lowest ebb in the longer version of the last week when Australia mauled the visitors by a 4-0 margin in the Test series.

The drubbing at the hands of Australia was also the current ODI world champion team's eight straight overseas Test defeat following the series loss by identical margin in England last year.

Dhoni would be hoping for lady luck to smile on him in the first of the two T20 matches ahead of the tri-series, featuring hosts Australia and Sri Lanka.

Bailey says he would have batted first anyway. Xavier Doherty and James Faulkner, who bowls left-arm seam, will debut along with himself.

Teams

Australia DA Warner, MS Wade (wk), TR Birt, DJ Hussey, GJ Bailey (capt), MR Marsh, DT Christian, JP Faulkner, GB Hogg, B Lee, XJ Doherty

India G Gambhir, V Sehwag, V Kohli, RG Sharma, SK Raina, MS Dhoni (capt & wk), RA Jadeja, R Sharma, R Ashwin, R Vinay Kumar, P Kumar

Scores	Upcoming	Results
South Africa vs Pakistan - 3rd ODI 4th Test - Australia v India - December 26-30, 23:30 GMT 1st Test - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan - December 26-30, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan at Harare Afghanistan won by 8 wickets (with 139 balls remaining) 3rd T20I - West Indies v Bangladesh at St Vincent Bangladesh won by 80 runs

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