Australia opt to field in Mohali T20I, Pant misses out for India

MOHALI: Australia Captain Aaron Finch won the toss and put India to bat in the first T20 international being played at the PCA stadium here.

The reigning T20 World Champions opted to bowl first apparently to take advantage of the dew factor.

This is the first match of the three-match T20I series being played between the two sides.

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah is not playing in Mohali but Harshal Patel has made a comeback after injury.

Wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant also misses out on the playing eleven for India.

Umesh Yadav, who came into the squad as Mohammad Shami was diagnosed with Covid, is in the playing eleven.

India and Australia have faced each other 23 times in T20Is of which India have registered 13 wins while Australia have won on nine occasions and one match ended in a no result.

"We're going to have a bowl first. It is about building up to the World Cup, and about getting some information about our boys. Really excited. You expect to be tested, hopefully, some dew comes out. The pitch looks hard and flat. We have one change from our earlier XI, " Aaron Finch said after winning the toss.

India captain Rohit Sharma said looking at what happened in the Asia Cup, the team had a chance to reflect "on where we went wrong". "It is an opportunity to test ourselves. Every game is a big game to learn. We got to learn so much in the last six-eight months on how to win games. This series will be no different for us to express ourselves. Looking at what happened in the Asia Cup, we had a chance to reflect on where we went wrong. This gives us an opportunity to correct ourselves as a group.

"Nothing changes in terms of our approach. Unfortunately, there are some injuries in the squad. Bumrah is not playing, he will take a game's break and probably come back in the second and the third game. We have Axar and Chahal. Pant misses out," said India captain Rohit Sharma after the toss.

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik(WK), Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Umesh Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal

Australia (Playing XI): Aaron Finch (C), Cameron Green, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Tim David, Matthew Wade (WK), Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood.