IND vs AUS 1st T20I: Australia win toss and field first; Bumrah returns, no Arshdeep

Australian captain Mitchell Marsh won the toss and elected to field first in the first T20I against India at the Manuka Oval in Canberra. The Suryakumar Yadav-led Indian team sees ace quick Jasprit Bumrah returning to the side, and India’s highest wicket-taker in this format, Arshdeep Singh, finds no place in the playing XI. Besides, for the hosts, Josh Hazlewood leads the pace attack, with Nathan Ellis and Xavier Bartlett backing him up. Marcus Stoinis and Tim David return to the T20I side. Bad news for India, however, is that all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy is ruled out of the first three games due to a left quadriceps injury sustained during the second ODI in Adelaide.

Here are the two sides for the series opener -

India - Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(captain), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson(w), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

Australia - Mitchell Marsh (captain), Travis Head, Josh Inglis(w), Tim David, Mitchell Owen, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Philippe, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood

“We are going to bowl first. It’s a good surface. I think most times we come to Canberra, it’s always a great surface, beautiful ground, and it’s going to be a stellar crowd, so I’m looking forward to it,” Marsh said at the toss.

Considering several changes to Australia’s T20I squad for this series, the hosts picked up a potent XI for the series opener. Praising the Indian Team for their recent success in this format, Marsh said, “As we know, India are the number one-ranked side in the world for a reason, so I’m certainly up and about for the contest.”

On the other hand, Suryakumar, the Indian captain, admitted to wanting to bat first only if he had won the toss.

“We were looking to bat first. I mean, it looks like a good wicket. And I heard from our analysts that there have not been a lot of games played here. Might get slower in the second innings. So, yeah, we wanted to bat first,” he said.

Speaking on picking up the best XI from this squad, Surya said it’s not a bad headache to have, while mentioning who all missed out on the playing XI.

“Big headache, yeah. It's a good headache. It's not a bad headache. It's a good headache to have. But yeah, good to have so many options. The guys who are missing out are Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep and Nitish,” he continued.