India vs Australia 1st T20I: Hosts Bat First, Shikhar Dhawan Returns

India won the toss and elected to field first in the first T20 International against Australia  at  JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi.

India have made two changes to the playing eleven that won the last ODI in Nagpur, bringing in Kuldeep Yadav and Shikhar Dhawan for Axar Patel and Ajinkya Rahane respectively.  For the visitors, who will be without their regular skipper Steve Smith, left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff is making his debut.

Here is what the captains said:

Virat Kohli:

“We are gonna bowl first. There’s a bit of weather around, so we would like to know where we are placed. I don’t think the pitch will be much better in the second innings but weather is a massive factor. T20 is a format where you can’t take any team for granted, let alone Australia. Beginning is important, and one window here and there and Australia might pounce. From the last game, Axar is out and Kuldeep is in. Shikhar Dhawan replaces Rahane.”

David Warner:

“Looking forward to this. Looks like a great wicket. I’m honoured to be the captain. I think the pitch exactly like how it looked in the Test. The ball will come on slowly towards the end.”

Preview:

Both the teams are entering the series with contrasting fortunes in the last couple of months but will be desperate to win the series. While Australia, after the groups-stage exit in the Champions Trophy, failed to win the Test series in Bangladesh before suffering the 4-1 loss in the ODI series against India. On the other hand, India have looked unstoppable at the moment, having registered impressive series wins over West Indies, Sri Lanka, Australia after the march to the final in the Champions Trophy.

Both the teams rank fairly low in the shortest format of the game. While India is ranked fifth, Australia are seventh and an impressive win in the three-match series can help both the teams to improve their ranking.

Here is the playing eleven of both the teams:

India:

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni(w), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

Australia:

David Warner(c), Aaron Finch, Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Daniel Christian, Tim Paine(w), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Jason Behrendorff