Australia captain Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to field in the first T20 international against India on Friday.
Leg-spinner Mayank Markande and middle-order batsman Peter Handscomb were handed debuts by their respective teams at the YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vizag.
Indian captain Virat Kohli, who is returning to the side after a three-week break, said India were looking to bowl first as well. “The pitch might have wear and tear later, and there was no dew in the ground last night. We want to give the World Cup probables some game-time,” he said at the toss.
Australian skipper Aaron Finch reckoned the wicket looked good and said he didn’t expect it to change much through the course of the match.
KL Rahul, returning to the Indian team after a lengthy gap, will open the innings, informed Kohli. The right-hander comes in place of Shikhar Dhawan, who has been rested along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Vijay Shankar. Also making a return to the Indian team is pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia are on a seven-match tour of India ahead of the ICC World Cup later this year in England. There will be two T20I clashes before a five-match ODI series.
Playing XIs for the first T20I:
India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni (w), Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Mayank Markande, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Handscomb (w), Ashton Turner, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa.