On Friday (March 17), India will play the first ODI of a three-match ODI series against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. With regular skippers Rohit Sharma and Pat Cummins missing for different reasons, both sides will have stand-in captains – Hardik Pandya for India and Steve Smith for Australia. Who will strike the first blow today in the ODI series?
Having won the four-match Test series against Australia and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, India will hope to continue its winning streak in the 50-over World Cup in 2023.
In the second ODI, skipper Rohit Sharma is expected to return, but Smith will manage the Australians for the entire series since Cummins chose to remain at home following the death of his mother. Shreyas Iyer has also been ruled out of the ODI series due to a back injury, so India will also be without him.
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IND Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya (c), Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal/Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik
AUS Probable XI: Travis Head, David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh/Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc