India and Australia switch formats and start getting ready for another ICC tournament at the end of the year. This comes after a tough Border-Gavaskar Trophy and before the World Test Championship final. The series is a good way for former winners and people who always want to win the 50-over title to get in shape.
With Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel back, India has a nearly full-strength team and a chance to try out different combinations before the World Cup, where they will play nine bilateral ODIs and an Asia Cup. Australia is missing their captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, but they can also figure out how their team should be balanced in India, where the World Cup is being held. After those three ODIs, they have five games in South Africa before going back to India in September for three more.
India needs to get off to a good start to get ready for the big event at home, and they also need to change their Wankhede form. They have lost the last three one-day internationals there, and their last win there was in 2011. Australia, on the other hand, can learn from how they beat India in 2020 at the same place. Seven of the players from that day are still in the current squad.
When: March 17, 2023, 1:30 PM IST, 1st ODI between India and Australia
Where: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
What to look forward to: a real surface and good scores. At this venue, the results are almost the same whether a team bats first or bowls first (13 to 14 respectively).
Group news:
In place of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan should bat first for India, and Suryakumar Yadav should bat fourth. India’s think tank might have to decide between which finger spinner and which wrist spinner to choose.
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
Australia: The big question for Australia will be which of their all-rounders can play.
Travis Head, David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Mitchell Marsh/Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Sean Abbott, Adam Zampa, and Mitchell Starc are likely to be in the XI.
Did you know?:
Steve Smith needs one hundred to match Ricky Ponting’s total of 14 hundreds against India in all forms of the game. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, on the other hand, have both scored eight ODI hundreds against Australia, which is one less than Sachin Tendulkar.
Both Rohit and Kohli are easy for Adam Zampa to get rid of, as he has done 4 and 5 times, respectively.
Virat Kohli needs 191 runs to reach 13,000 runs in ODIs. Steve Smith needs 83 runs in the format to reach 5,000.
