Mumbai, March 16 In the year they will host the 50-man World Cup, India resume preparations for the big event in a busy year with three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) against Australia. , the first of which will be played at Wankhede Stadium on Friday.
The second and third ODI matches of the three-match series will be played in Visakhapatnam (March 19) and Chennai (March 22).
It’s going to be a busy year for 50-a-side cricket in India. The Blue Shirts have played six ODIs in the first month of the year, and the second phase of their preparations begins with three 50-over matches against Australia, followed by Asian Cup three in West Indies, Pakistan or the UAE. away games, culminating in three ODIs against Australia in September 2023, just before the start of the World Cup in October-November.
With the Indian Premier League (IPL) scheduled for April and May, Indian white-ball specialists have little time to catch their breath.
In January, India swept Sri Lanka to seal a 3-0 win in Trivandrum with a 317-run resounding victory. They then swept New Zealand again by 12 runs in Hyderabad, eight wickets in Raipur and 90 runs in Indore.
The Blue Jackets will hope to sweep Australia again, but knocking out the five-time world champions is harder than a 6-0 sweep combined. India could only win 2-1 in the previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series as Australia lost a few players and lost a key pacer and skipper Pat Cummins midway through the tour. The team fought back to win the third Test in Indore after being beaten in the previous two.
Cummins is still in Australia dealing with family matters following his mother’s death and Steve Smith will lead the team in his absence. The arrival of white-ball specialists Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Sean Abbott, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, Josh Inglis and Ashton Agar has strengthened Australia and will therefore present a tougher challenge than they did in the Test series.
The nature of restricted cricket removes the threat of overspin from the equation, which will allow Australia’s ODI specialists to breathe easier than their Test counterparts.
India will go into the first ODI without regular captain Rohit Sharma, who will miss the match due to family commitments. In his absence, vice-captain Hardik Pandya, who leads the T20 squad, will perform his duties, with another chance to establish himself as the front-runner to succeed Rohit Sharma.
The hosts were hit hard when middle batsman Shreyas Iyer was ruled out for the entire series due to a back injury in Ahmedabad’s fourth and final Test against Australia. While the team went into another series, there was no presence of speed forwards Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Shami and Mohd Siraj, who all excelled in the Test series against Australia, along with youngsters Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat And skipper Hardik Pandya gave the selectors another test of pace on the road to World Cup selection.
In terms of batting, KL Rahul will have a chance to cement his place in the World Cup squad. He has lost his place in the Test squad, but a series of matches with bat and glove will do his cause a lot ahead of the IPL if he gets the chance.
Shubman Gill, on the other hand, had been outstanding in the previous ODI series against the Black Caps, hitting a double cent in the first game and a run in the third. He also scored a century against Australia in the Ahmedabad Test, as did Kohli, who scored 186 against Australia a few days ago before scoring 186 against Australia. Recovered in a short game.
With the addition of ODI specialist Suryakumar Yadav, all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur, India will be looking forward to performances from former World Cup specialists and dual-role players.
While Australia is still sweating over the availability of opener David Warner, who suffered a concussion and a fractured elbow hairline in the Test series, the team management will be eagerly awaiting Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh from the cuts. They may be in the plans for the World Cup.
Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh also acknowledged in Thursday’s pre-match press conference that the three-match series is an opportunity to experiment and test players and work out combinations before the big event.
Those three one-day games and three more games the two teams will play in September allow front office to experiment and watch some players to see different options, he said.
Squad:
India: Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (week), Hardik Pandya (captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkat.
Australia: David Warner, Travis Hyde, Steven Smith (captain), Manus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Alec Skelly, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Stark, Nathan Ellie Adams, Adam Zampa.
–IANS
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