India-Aus ODI: Australia won toss, opt to bat first

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Sydney (SunstarTV Bureau): Australia has won the toss in the first One Day International and has opted to bat first against India, in Sydney.

For the 1st ODI, India’s playing XI against Australia is S Dhawan, M Agarwal, V Kohli, S Iyer, KL Rahul, H Pandya, R Jadeja, M Shami, Y Chahal, N Saini and J Bumrah.

1st ODI. India’s playing XI against Australia: S Dhawan, M Agarwal, V Kohli, S Iyer, KL Rahul, H Pandya, R Jadeja, M Shami, Y Chahal, N Saini, J Bumrah https://t.co/0xnetId9Y1

— ANI (@ANI) November 27, 2020

Cricket has been back for a while now, but the silence hasn’t gone away. Today, it is witnessed that something close to normalcy – something like the old times – with the Sydney Cricket Ground filled to 50% capacity when Australia meet India for the first of three ODIs.

The match opens in a long and an important Australian summer for both teams, who are looking to address two major long-term goals: to build towards next year’s T20 World Cup, and to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and firm up their respective chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship final.

There’s plenty of wider context to this ODI series. It’s a part of the new ODI Super League, and for the India players who will be featuring in the Test series too, it’s also a chance to get back into the rhythm of longer innings and longer spells after a long IPL season that followed months of dormancy. For once, though, the wider context will be secondary.