SYDNEY, Jan 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Australia won the toss and chose to bat in
the opening one-day international against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground
on Saturday.
“The middle overs are key for us to improve on. Just playing spin well and
keeping wickets in hand at the back end to load up,” Australia skipper Aaron
Finch said at the toss.
India captain Virat Kohli said: “We would have batted first as well but
some of the players are inclined towards chasing.
“It’s a brilliant wicket to play on, with the shorter boundary on one
side. It’s going to be an exciting chase.”
Australia — following their first-ever 2-1 home Test series defeat to
India — made a number of changes to their ODI team.
Alex Carey will open with skipper Aaron Finch, with veteran paceman Peter
Siddle to play in his first ODI in more than eight years and Jason
Behrendorff to make his ODI debut.
India went for two spinners with Ravi Jadeja returning to the side and
Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik chosen in the middle order.
Hardik Pandya and Lokesh Rahul will be missing after they were sent home
from the tour of Australia amid an investigation into comments made about
women on a TV celebrity show.
In the last five ODIs at the SCG the average score is 327.
Australia have won three of their last 24 games since the end of January
2017 and are currently ranked sixth, while second-ranked India have only lost
one of their last 11 ODIs.
Teams:
Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Alex Carey, Shaun Marsh, Usman Khawaja,
Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Lyon,
Peter Siddle, Jason Behrendorff.
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (capt), Ambati Rayudu,
Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar,
Mohammed Sham, Khaleel Ahmed.
Umpires: Michael Gough (ENG), Paul Wilson (AUS)
TV Umpire: Richard Kettleborough (ENG)
Match Referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)