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India vs Australia 2020,1st ODI: Hardik Pandya Back For Tourists as Aaron Finch Opts to Bat First in Sydney

Hardik Pandya, who was injured before the forced COVID-19 break, returned to India's Playing XI as he replaced Manish Pandey.

Australia skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bat against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the first ODI match. Australia decided to make only one change from their last Playing XI featured, against England, in September as Steve Smith came in for Mitchell Marsh, who is yet to recover from the injury he sustained during recently concluded IPL in UAE.

After the forced COVID-19 break, India will play their first international match. It will be after a break of nearly 290 days when India will enter the ground as a unit for international cricket.

Hardik Pandya, who was injured before the forced COVID-19 break, returned to India’s Playing XI as he replaced Manish Pandey. There are still speculations around his availability to bowl in the match as he played as a specialist batsman during IPL for champions Mumbai Indians.

Australia captain Finch acknowledged the returns on fans in the stadium.

“We will bat first. Great to have cricket back in Australia, to play in front of crowds will be nice. The wicket looks good, hopefully, we can put runs on the board and defend. Steve Smith is back, he replaces Mitchell Marsh,” Finch said during the toss.

Kohli said that Team will look to set the momentum for the full-fledged tour right from the first game.

“I think it’s very important to start well for us as a team. When you come to a place like Australia, you want to set the momentum early. We were given a few allowances to be able to train and the boys took it really well. We got a bit of lead time, which I think is priceless in today’s international schedule. Mayank Agarwal’s going to start. He’s a really exciting player, had a great IPL. He’ll start with Shikhar. The five guys who miss out are Manish Pandey, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, Shardul Thakur and Natarajan,” Kohli said during the toss.

Playing XIs of India and Australia

Australia (Playing XI): Aaron Finch(c), David Warner, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

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