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India v Australia: first one-day international – live!

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India XI

The hosts have gone with KL Rahul at No3, meaning the mighty Virat is scheduled down at four, for the time being anyway. It’s a line-up bristling with attacking intent, including the livewire Pant behind the stumps, the phenomenal Bumrah with the new ball, and plenty of variety in between.

India 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 KL Rahul, 4 Virat Kohli (c), 5 Shreyas Iyer, 6 Rishabh Pant (wk), 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Jasprit Bumrah





Australia XI

The headline news for the visitors is the inclusion of Test run-machine Marnus Labuschagne who becomes the 229th man to represent Australia in one-day internationals. The adopted Queenslander received his cap from Steve Waugh a short while ago. Otherwise, two spinners in the same line-up is always notable for an Australian XI while Kane Richardson has been preferred to Josh Hazlewood among the pacemen.

Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch (c), 3 Steven Smith, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Ashton Turner, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Ashton Agar, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Adam Zampa





The weather in Mumbai is warm (28C) partly cloudy, with a northerly breeze coming through. Rain is not out of the question, but very unlikely indeed according to the forecast.





Preamble

Jonathan Howcroft

Hello everybody and welcome to live OBO coverage of the first ODI between India and Australia in Mumbai. The action gets underway at the Wankhede Stadium at 7pm AEST.

It’s the middle of January and the Sydney Test finished just over a week ago, so the Australian public can look forward to *checks notes* a three-match ODI overseas tour? That can’t be right, can it? But alas, in cricket’s new world order that’s how things roll, and the first of what Kurt Cobain might have called a radio friendly unit shifter – for all it’s shallow context – promises to be a belting contest between powerful sides.

For Australia it is a chance to build on a prosperous summer, one in which the pall of Cape Town has been removed emphatically with five thumping Test victories. It is their first ODI since suffering defeat in the 2019 World Cup semi-final, and the first step on the road to the 2023 World Cup – in India.

For the hosts it’s also an opportunity to put World Cup disappointment behind them and chip away at England’s lead on top of the ICC rankings. The formidable top three of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli love this match-up. Borrowing some numbers from ESPNCricinfo, since 2013, that trio have scored 58% of India’s runs against Australia. While in the 21 matches they have played against Australia, 14 of them have featured a century from at least one those batsmen.

Remember you can keep me company throughout the night via email: [email protected] or Twitter: @JPHowcroft.

Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and Navdeep Saini in good spirits before the first ODI against Australia in Mumbai.

 Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and Navdeep Saini in good spirits before the first ODI against Australia in Mumbai. Photograph: Rafiq Maqbool/AP

Updated

source: theguardian.com